'Tino's' back in boro's hands
Tino's Italian Restaurant is no

The building at the corner of South Broad and Fourth streets in Emporium is again up for grabs.

more. The

former town library on East Fourth Street is back in the hands of Emporium Borough.

Members of Borough Council emerged from a private "executive session" Monday evening to announce that the land sale agreement between the borough and the restaurant owner had been dissolved by mutual consent.

Tino's, owned by Kathleen Costantino and operated by Jimmy Costantino, ceased operations last month.

The restaurant had operated in the former libary building for two years. The building was purchased for $75,000 from the borough in early 2004.

Thousands of dollars of upgrades have been made since then. And the first step for the borough is to contract for a professional real estate assessment, after which time the prominent building could be put up for sale or leased to a private operator.

In other business, Council members gave preliminary approval to a $1.2 million operating budget for 2007, with no

anticipated change in the current tax structure. Emporium will borrow $175,000 from Northwest Savings Bank, at an annual interest rate of 4.9 percent, and pay off the tax anticipation loan as revenues are received early next year.