CITY HALL BEAT STEVE MOCARSKY by Dave

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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24, 2019

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Mixed verdict in air quality report Region’s number of unhealthy days due to smog remain relatively high.

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BY JOn O’COnnELL sTaff WriTer

Mark MoraN / sTaff PhoTograPher

Wilkes-Barre Department of Public Works employee Tom McCabe Jr. tosses recyclables into the back of a city truck on Gardner Avenue on Monday afternoon.

City works to comply with recycling standards after investigation shows many businesses aren’t submitting annual reports. BY STEVE MOCArSKY sTaff WriTer

WILKES-BARRE — The city has begun taking steps to comply with state commercial recycling requirements after an investigation by The Citizens’ Voice revealed deficiencies in the program. Most businesses in the city haven’t been submitting annual recycling reports as required by state law, and the city has had no enforcement plan in place despite the possibility of losing state grant revenue. Act 101 of 1988 requires all municipalities with 10,000 or more residents to have both residential and commercial recycling programs. The law also requires all commercial, institutional and municipal establishments within such a municipality to recycle high-grade office paper, corrugated paper, aluminum and leaf waste and any other items that the municipality deems appropriate. A review of city records revealed less than 100 such establishments are listed in the city’s commercial recycling reports for 2014 through 2018. But based on the number of business tax accounts, there are 1,070 businesses operating in the city that are not rental-related, according to city Finance Director Brett Kittrick. Please see rECYCLing, Page A7

Mark MoraN / sTaff PhoTograPher

Recyclables sit in the back of a Wilkes-Barre Department of Public Works truck on Monday.

Mayor sought recycling fee hike as $785,000 remained unpaid BY STEVE MOCArSKY sTaff WriTer

WILKES-BARRE — While Mayo r To n y G e o r g e w a n t s t o increase residents’ annual recycling fee to generate an additional $140,000 in revenue, more than 3,200 delinquent recycling accounts in the city totaling nearly $785,000 remain unpaid. E a r l i e r t h i s y e a r, George asked council to approve increasing the annual recycling

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fee from $50 to $60. Although the increase was factored into the 2019 budget that council approved 4-1 last year, council defeated an amendment to the recycling fee ordinance by a 2-2 vote in February. Councilman Tony Brooks was absent but indicated he would not support the measure. Councilman Bill Barrett, who along with Beth Gilbert voted against the increase, said he had concerns about delinquent recycling accounts.

The Citizens’ Voice submitted an open records request for the delinquent account information and received the data last week. A review of the data revealed: ■ The delinquent balance due on 3,262 accounts ranged from a low of 13 cents to more than $4,000. ■ 46 accounts with balances due of $1,000 or more totaled $71,662. ■ 492 accounts with balances due ranging between $500 and $999 totaled $300,743. Please see DELinquEnT, Page A7

In one breath, an American Lung Association report applauds Northeast Pennsylvania for stellar air quality. In the next, it sounds a warning. The association’s annual “State of the Air” report, released today, gave Lackawanna County top marks for zero high-particle pollution days during the 201517 study period. In fact, the association has found no high particlepollution days over five years from 2012 to 2017. On the other hand, unhealthy days for a different kind of pollution, ozone, remain relatively high in the region. The association has used U.S. Environmental Protection Agency information to compile “State of the Air” for the last two decades. While the nation’s air quality has improved dramatically since the Clean Air Act of 1970 clamped down on pollution, the data suggests improvements for common pollutants, including particulate matter and ozone, have stalled. The region’s only particulate matter monitor is in Lackawanna County, so there’s no county-specific data for Luzerne and Wyoming counties. The EPA has an active ozone monitor in Scranton, north of Penn State Scranton, near borders with T h ro o p a n d D u n m o re, according to online federal government maps. There’s another one in Blakely near Mill and Depot streets. The lone active Luzerne County ozone monitor is in Wilkes-Barre near the Hollenback Golf Course along North Washington Street. Please see Air, Page A8

Taco Bell eyes Dallas Twp. location Memorial Highway property has been vacant since Mark II’s demolition in 2013. BY DEniSE ALLABAugH sTaff WriTer

DALLAS TWP. — A new Taco Bell is tentatively planned to open on a site on Memorial Highway in Dallas Twp. that formerly housed a Mark II restaurant. Retired tire mogul Jack The CiTizeNs’ VoiCe file Williams, who owned the site, Property owner Jack Williams confirmed he sold the said he sold it to Taco Bell, site, which housed a Mark II restaurant until its clos- the fast food chain that serves a variety of Mexican foods. ing in 2008, to Taco Bell.

Dallas Twp. Zoning Officer Carl Alber said no permits have been issued yet and the next step would be for Taco Bell to submit an application and attend a planning commission meeting. The Mark II restaurant closed in 2008 after former owners, brothers Bernie and Tom Sult and their mother Marilyn Carson, entered into bankruptcy and put their res-

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taurants up for sale. The Back Mountain restaurant was demolished in 2013 after it fell into disrepair. At that time, it was the last Mark II in Luzerne County. Williams, the former coowner of Jack Williams Tire and former owner of Two Jacks Cycle, and his daughter Jennifer purchased the mortgage to four Mark II restaurants in Luzerne County in 2010 through their company JW Ventures. Another former Mark II

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on Route 309 in Wilkes-Barre Twp. that closed in 2008 is now the site of Dunkin’ Donuts. Enterprise Rent-ACar operates a facility at another former Mark II on Kidder Street in WilkesBarre that closed in 2006 and Williams said he leases the site to them. Sunoco acquired and demolished another location in Edwardsville that closed in 2007. Contact the writer: dallabaugh@citizensvoice.com, 570-821-2115, @CVallabaugh

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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24, 2019

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REcycLINg: Grants in jeopardy from page a1

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“We have to consider a balance with an issue like this,” Henry said. “We don’t want to deter businesses from operating in Wilkes-Barre.” Compliance with Act 101 and the city recycling ordinance can be burdensome for smaller businesses and nonprofits. The ordinance requires them to contract with a private hauler for recyclables pickup. Joe Valenti, president of Waste Reduction & Recycling in Hanover Twp., said the smallest recycling container he has is 2 cubic yards, and the minimum monthly pickup costs $75. “That’s an issue for small, mom-and-pop businesses,” Valenti said. “It’d be cheaper for them just to throw (recyclables) in the garbage.” Valenti said an alternative would be for the city to provide bins for entities whose monthly or weekly recycling volumes didn’t surpass a predetermined threshold and pick up the recyclables for a fee. Four of the five city council members — Mike Belusko, Tony Brooks, Bill Barrett and Beth Gilbert — said they would consider amending the city’s recycling ordinance in an effort to increase participation while not burdening small businesses and nonprofits. Mike Merritt did not return a call for comment. Mayor Tony George’s office did not respond to an email seeking comment. George Brown, who is challenging George for his mayoral seat in the May primary, said he’s glad city officials are taking steps to remedy the situation but criticized George’s administration for being reactive rather than proactive on the issue.

Consider also the more find Wilkes-Barre's than 100 nonprofit entities commercial recycling reports with this story such as churches, schools, at citizensvoice.com. hospitals, government agencies and community organizations in Wilkes-Barre, and compliance with state law is Barry was cross-referencing mailing lists, and that all city less than 10%. establishments would be sent Losing revenue reminders about the recycling From a financial stand- law. point, the city could be losing Funding in jeopardy a significant amount of reveA review of the 2018 comnue, given the state awards an annual recycling performance mercial recycling report grant based on the amount of revealed about half the estabmaterials recycled in the city lishments in the report prothe previous year. vided no recycling numbers “As an incentive to the at all for that year. municipality to require the And while the city recybusinesses to report, the DEP cling ordinance provides for offers funding to the munici- fines ranging from $50 to $150 pality for every pound of recy- for noncompliance, city cled material — residential Attorney Tim Henry said and commercial — through he’s unaware of any enforcethe 904 Recycling Perfor- ment program in place. mance Grant,” said Colleen That could jeopardize the Connolly, spokeswoman for city’s recycling performance the state Department of Envi- grant. ronmental Protection’s NorthOne of the grant program east Regional Office. requirements is that a Last year, the city received a municipality “have a properformance grant totaling gram of enforcement that $77,185. The grant for 2017 periodically monitors partictotaled $72,184. The city was ipation, receives complaints awarded a $350,000 this year, and issues warnings for which includes 90% of the cost required participants” in its of a new leaf vacuum truck. recycling ordinance. City Grants Coordinator Connolly said the DEP Mark Barry said the city “may decide to assist the mails reporting forms annual- municipality if a business ly to city establishments refuses to recycle or report based on a list of those that their tonnage,” and the DEP previously reported recycling can assess civil penalties on numbers, and the list is updat- entities that are in violation ed as officials become aware of Act 101. of new businesses. “A determination of the Barry agreed cross-refer- penalty would depend on the encing the recycling report severity of the violation and mailing list with the city’s list the history of the violator,” of business tax accounts like- she said. ly would increase participaAct 101 provides for fines tion. Mayor Tony George’s ranging into the thousands office maintains a list of local of dollars. nonprofits that also could be Striking a balance used. contact the writer: Henry said enforcement smocarsky@citizensvoice.com City Administrator Rick 570-821-2110, @mocarskyCV Gazenski said Monday that can be tricky.

DELINquENT: Controller on list from page a1

■ Another 1,063 accounts with balances between $150 and $499 totaled $299,463. ■ The account with the highest amount due — $4,236.45 — belongs to local developer Thomas Greco. ■ The individual owing the most on multiple accounts is Plains Twp. resident Sandra J. Kelly, who owes $10,900.87 on nine accounts. Greco did not respond to a request for comment and attempts to reach Kelly were unsuccessful. One noteworthy name on the list of delinquent accounts is city Controller Darren Snyder. Snyder said he only learned he owed $1,087.09 after the city received the delinquent account list from the Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority, which sends out the recycling bills each June, and someone told him his name was on it. Snyder said he has since paid the fees plus costs and asked officials in the city finance and law offices why he never received a delinquent notice. Snyder said he learned there was a “communication problem” between the authority and the collection company. City Administrator Rick Gazenski said Municipal Services Bureau is the city’s collection company for delinquent recycling accounts. Navient acquired Municipal Services Bureau in 2014 and the city entered into a contract

oNLINE EXTRa find the list of delinquent recycling accounts with this story at citizensvoice.com.

$39,984.75 in delinquent recycling fees in 2015; $18,586.51 in 2016; $2,650.43 in 2017; and $1,443.19 in 2018. It’s unclear if residents paid those fees to the authority or to MSB or a combination of both. City Attorney Tim Henry said it might be worthwhile for the city to file liens against the properties of account holders with the most egregious delinquencies. But, Henry said, the city must make sure doing so is feasible. He said it costs $40 to $45 to file a lien and send certified letters. Gazenski said city officials would be having conversations with officials from the authority and MSB regarding communications and the sending of delinquent notices. Gilbert, Barrett and Brooks said they would continue to resist the administration’s efforts to increase the recycling fee until efforts are made to resolve the delinquency issue to their satisfaction, including giving consideration to switching collection companies. Barrett said collection attempts “seem to be minimal or next to nothing.” Councilman Mike Belusko, who along with Mike Merritt voted to approve the recycling fee increase, said he would no longer support it until the delinquency issue was properly addressed. Merritt did not return a message seeking comment.

with Navient in 2015. Sandy Bartosiewicz, director of budget and finance for the municipal authority, said the authority has an agreement with the city to send out annual recycling bills, but there is no agreement related to delinquent accounts. Bartosiewicz said the authority has supplied the city with a list of delinquent accounts upon request, “and what the city does with that list is up to them.” Asked how long it’s been since delinquent notices have been sent, city Finance Director Brett Kittrick said MSB “actively pursues the accounts turned over to them.” “The only way they get money is if they collect on the accounts. We do not pay MSB anything. Their compensation comes from an additional 25% fee charged for collection on the accounts,” Kittrick said. For that reason, Kittrick said, “collection companies tend to be very aggressive. I know they continue to pursue those balances, but they don’t report to me how often they attempt to contact the account holders. Many of these accounts go back several years.” contact the writer: According to financial smocarsky@citizensvoice.com reports, the city received 570-821-2110, @mocarskyCV

Police: Man stabbed teenage relative By BoB KaLINowSKI Staff Writer

WILKES-BARRE — A man stabbed a teenage relative early Tuesday in the city after he was confronted for peeping on a woman taking a bath at their Holland Street residence, police said in arrest papers. Milton Clark, 59, is charged with two counts of aggravated assault and one count of simple assault. Police said Clark stabbed a 17-year-old relation after he was confronted for trying to watch the teenager’s mother take a bath inside 97 Holland St. The teenager was stabbed in

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the left lower abdomen and was unresponsive when police arrived on the scene, police said. An update on his condition was not released by Tuesday evening. Investigators say they were called to the home around 12:25 a.m. Lynn Williams, the 911 caller, said a dispute between her son and Clark arose after she noticed Clark looking at her taking a bath. She said she asked her son to get Clark to stop. By the time she tried to intervene in the fight, her son was stabbed, she said. Clark fled the scene when

Williams called 911, police said. A city police officer later located Clark on South Main Street with a knife in his hand, police said. Police ordered Clark to drop the knife and he did, police said. He was then taken into custody. Clark was jailed in Luzerne County Correctional Facility to await overnight arraignment. Court records indicate Clark was arraigned by Magisterial District Judge Alexandra Kravitz, who set bail at $100,000 cash. contact the writer: bkalinowski@citizensvoice.com 570-821-2055, @cvbobkal

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Texas gov: 20 dead in El Paso shooting, more than two dozen hurt BY CEDAR ATTANASIO, MICHAEL BALSAMO AND DIANA HEIDGERD ASSocIATEd pRESS

EL PASO, Texas — Twenty people were killed and more than two dozen injured in a shooting Saturday in a busy shopping area in the Texas border town of El Paso, the state’s governor said. Among the possibilities being investigated is whether it was a hate crime, the police chief said. Two law enforcement officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity identified the suspect taken into custody as 21-year-old Patrick Crusius. El Paso police haven’t released his name, but confirmed the gunman is from Allen near Dallas, Texas. Police said another 26 people were injured and most were being treated at hospitals. Most of the victims were believed to have been shot at a Walmart near the Cielo Vista Mall, they said, adding that the store was packed with as many as 3,000 people during the busy back-toschool shopping season. “The scene was a horrific one,” said El Paso Police Chief Gre g Allen, who described many of those hurt as having life-threatening injuries. He also said police found a post online that may have been written by the suspect — one reason authorities are looking at whether it was a hate crime. El Paso, which has about 680,000 residents, is in West Texas and sits across the border from Juarez, Mexico. Residents were quick to volunteer to give blood to the injured after the shooting, and police and military members were helping people look for missing loved ones. Please see SHOOTING, Page A4

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Walmart employees comfort one another after an active shooter opened fire at the store in El Paso, Texas, on Saturday.

2020 Dems push for gun limits after El Paso mass shooting BY MICHELLE PRICE AND KATHLEEN RONANYE ASSocIATEd pRESS

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El Paso Fire Medical personnel arrive at the scene of a shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, on Saturday.

LAS VEGAS — Democratic presidential candidates expressed outrage Saturday that mass shootings have becoming chillingly common nationwide and blamed the National Rifle Association and its congressional allies after a gunman opened fire at a shopping area near the Texas-Mexico border. “It’s not just today, it has happened several times this week. It’s happened here in Las Vegas where some lunatic killed 50 some odd people,” Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders said as he and 18 other White House hopefuls were in Nevada to

‘It’s not just today, it has happened several times this week.’ SEN. BERNIE SANDERS presidential candidate

address the nation’s largest public employees union. “All over the world, people are looking at the United States and wondering what is going on? What is the mental health situation in America, where time after time, after time, after time, we’re seeing indescribable horror.” Please see DEMS, Page A4 ADVE RTISE M E NT

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PAYING UP

Payments on delinquent recycling fees up in W-B BY STEVE MOCARSKY STAFF WRITER

Payments on delinquent recycling fee accounts in Wilkes-Barre picked up to levels not seen since 2016 following an investigation by The Citizens’ Voice this past spring. Payments to Municipal Services Bureau, the agency the city hired to collect on delinquent recycling accounts, totaled about $4,277 in April after the newspaper reported that same month

that delinquent accounts totaled nearly $785,000 and published online a list of all delinquent accounts. Payments totaled about $1,375 in May and about $2,402 in July, for a threemonth total of $8,054. Monthly totals had not reached anywhere near those levels since September 2016, about a year after the city hired Municipal Services Bureau to pursue delinquent recycling fees. MSB’s

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Recyclables wait to be picked up in South WilkesBarre on Thursday morning. collections for all of 2017 and 2018 combined totaled only about $5,458. The city received 75% of the money collected, given

that a contract allows MSB to keep 25% of the delinquent fees collected.

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SHootiNG: ‘It’s chaos right now’ From page a1

“It’s chaos right now,” said Austin Johnson, an Army medic at nearby Fort Bliss, who volunteered to help at the shopping center and later at a school serving as a reunification center. Adriana Quezada, 39, said she was in the women’s clothing section of Walmart with her two children when she “heard shots.” “But I thought they were hits, like roof construction,” she said. Her 19-year-old daughter and 16-year-old son threw themselves to the ground, then mark moran / STaFF phoTographer ran out of the store through an Wilkes-Barre DPW worker Nick Pugh loads recyclables into the back of a truck in emergency exit. They were not South Wilkes-Barre on Thursday morning. hurt, Quezada said. She said she saw four men, dressed in black, moving together firing guns indiscriminately. Police later said From page a1 they believed the suspect was $27,968.38 the “sole shooter” but were $6,036.46 But the city actually $10,866.49 continuing to investigate $0.00 received significantly more reports that others were $2,056.48 from delinquent account Monthly involved. $3,812.25 holders in that same time $3,968.28 El Paso police Sgt. Robert delinquent frame through the Wyoming $1,129.12 Gomez said the suspect, who $3,358.66 Valley Sanitary Authority, recycling fees used a rifle, was arrested with$238.75 which annually bills for and out incident. $955.13 paid to collects the regular recycling $1,694.71 The shooting came less than $408.10 fee payments for the city. a week after a gunman opened wilkes-Barre $497.90 A comparison of past-due fire on a California food festi$467.13 amounts for delinquent $0.00 val. Santino William Legan, account holders in April to $866.12 19, killed three people and $158.75 past-due amounts on those injured 13 others last Sunday $113.16 same accounts as of June 12 at the popular Gilroy Garlic $0.00 showed that 231 of those $584.00 Festival, and died of a selfaccount holders made pay$16.00 inflicted gunshot wound. $16.00 ments to either MSB or the Ryan Mielke, a spokesman $37.64 authority totaling $30,411. for University Medical Center $32.00 Records show 205 of those $444.01 of El Paso, said 13 people were $382.75 accounts were brought curbrought to the hospital with $0.00 rent while $7,499 was still injuries after the Texas shoot$609.33 owed on the remaining 26. $331.68 ing, including one who died. Still, no payments were $0.00 Two of the injured were chil$40.00 made on the 3,030 other dren who were being trans$100.00 accounts the authority ferred to El Paso Children’s $20.00 reported as delinquent in $199.48 Hospital, he said. He wouldn’t April. $0.00 provide additional details on $82.70 T h e C i t i z e n s ’ Vo i c e the victims. $20.00 obtained the data through Eleven other victims were $40.00 open records requests after $0.00 being treated at Del Sol Medi$16.00 council members earlier this cal Center, hospital spokes$99.20 year refused to support Mayman Victor Guerrero said. $3,207.74 or Tony George’s request to $1,031.00 Those victims’ ages ranged increase the $50 annual recy$1,801.72 cling fee by $10. Councilman KEVIN O’NEILL / STAFF ARTIST Bill Barrett had indicated he accounts made any payhad concerns about delinBY tHE ments on those accounts in quent recycling accounts. From page a1 the seven-week period followGeorge had budgeted the NUMBERS ing the story . increased fee into the 2019 Wilkes-Barre received According to the data, the budg et, which council Sanders blasted Republican the following amounts in accounts with the highest Senate leadership for being approved last year. recycling fees collected past-due amounts are: by the Wyoming Valley “more concerned about pleasall caught up ■ $2,774 — Richard H. ing the NRA than listening to Sanitary authority from Of the five recycling Jones III, of White Haven, for the vast majority of the AmerJan. 1, 2015 through accounts with the highest five units. may 30, 2019: ican people” and said that past-due amounts, and the 2015: $706,697.80 ■ $2,670 — Sandra J. Kelly, President Donald Trump has five account holders with the 2016: $758,531.49 of Plains Twp., for four units a responsibility to support most owed on multiple 2017: $731,471.21 ■ $2,286 — Sandra J. Kelly, commonsense gun safety legaccounts, only one account 2018: $731,301.14 Plains Twp., for four units. islation. holder has brought the 2019: $148,891.49* Account holders who owe At least 20 people were * The city’s recycling fee accounts current. t h e m o s t o n m u l t i p l e killed amid back-to-school revenue received via the Local developer Thom accounts are: shopping in El Paso. A 21-yearWyoming Valley Sanitary Greco made payments on ■ $10,901 — Sandra J. Kel- old man was taken into custoauthority between Jan. 1 three accounts in May, bringly, Plains Twp., on nine dy, law enforcement officials and may 30 is on par ing the account for his own accounts, 19 units. said. with 2018 receipts for home current. He paid off ■ $7,875 — Viking EnterShortly after the shooting the same period. about the other two accounts last prises, Edwardsville, on 29 and before its death toll was 73% of 2018 recycling week and provided copies of accounts, 30 units. widely reported, White House fees were paid in the receipts from the online pay■ $6,225 — Mayer Hirsch, officials said Trump was fourth quarter of that ments he made to the WVSA. Brooklyn, New York, on 12 briefed while spending the year. The payments totaled just accounts, 12 units. weekend at his New Jersey over $6,000. ■ $5,549 — Cherie Cruz, golf club. He conveyed his iniWhen Matteo bought the Kingston, on nine accounts, Greco said he had not realtial reaction on Twitter, writized that his recycling Stegmaier Mansion on South nine units ing that the shooting was “teraccounts were past-due prior Franklin Street in 2001, it Attempts to contact those rible” and that he was in close to the story published in had previously been convert- account holders were unsucconsultation with state offiApril. The amounts he owed ed into 11 apartments. But cessful. cials. He turned to other topseem high, he said, because Matteo restored the historic Keith Scott, who owns ics, tweeting a note of encourthey include nine apartment home, turned it into a com- Viking Enterprises, did not agement to UFC fighter Colby units in addition to his home. mercial bed and breakfast return a call seeking com“It came as a surprise to and, as required by city ordi- ment. me,” Greco said. “And since I nance, uses a private hauler A business card with a was singled out in the paper by for trash and recyclables. note was left on Kelly’s porch “I was never supplied with when no one answered the you and The Citizens’ Voice ... a recycling container and the door at her home. She did not we made a payment on it.” Greco is checking into a city never collected recycla- call the reporter. fourth account that might bles, so I was being billed for A representative at K&K exist in error. WVSA records something I never used,” Realty Holdings indicated show two separate accounts Matteo said. Kelly recently acquired the Matteo said he has been in properties, which already for recycling collection at his home. Greco paid off one of contact with the city attor- had long past-due recycling those accounts in May and ney and has to supply proof fee accounts attached to said he was unaware of the he’s been using a private them. other. It’s possible he was hauler to take care of recyA search of Luzerne Counclables. double-billed. ty property records revealed Bed and breakfast owner Kelly bought all nine properNo payments Joseph L. Matteo, who was ties from Cruz in May 2018, from others listed as having an account paying $3,000 each for five of None of the other five with the fourth-highest pastthe properties and $6,000 due amount in April, said delinquent account holders each for the other three. last week that he never reported in April for owing contact the writer: should have been billed in the most either on a single smocarsky@citizensvoice.com account or on multiple 570-821-2110, @mocarskyCV the first place.

REcYcLiNG: Many still unpaid

Briana SanChez / The el paSo TimeS Via ap

People arrive at MacArthur Elementary looking for family and friends as the school is being used a reunification center during the aftermath of Saturday’s shooting in El Paso, Texas.

2015 2016 2017 2018 2019

from 35 to 82, he said. Gov. Greg Abbott, who confirmed the number of victims at a news conference, called the shooting “a heinous and senseless act of violence” and said the state had deployed a number of law enforcement officers to the city. President Donald Trump tweeted: “Reports are very bad, many killed.” Presidential candidate and former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke appeared a bit shaken as he appeared at a candidate forum Saturday in Las Vegas shortly after news of the shooting in his hometown was reported. The Democrat said the shooting shatters “any illusion that we have that progress is inevitable” on tackling gun violence. He said he heard early reports that the shooter might have had a military-style weapon, saying we need to “keep that (expletive) on the battlefield. Do not bring it into our communities.” “We have to find some reason for optimism and hope or else we consign ourselves to a future where nearly 40,000 people a year will lose their lives to gun violence and I cannot accept that,” O’Rourke said. El Paso has become a focal

point of the immigration debate, drawing Trump in February to argue that walling off the southern border would make the U.S. safer, while city residents and O’Rourke led thousands on a protest march past the barrier of barbed wire-topped fencing and towering metal slats. O’Rourke stressed that border walls haven’t made his hometown safer. The city’s murder rate was less than half the national average in 2005, the year before the start of its border fence. Before the wall project started, El Paso had been rated one of the three safest major U.S. cities going back to 1997. Heidi Beirich, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project, also said the El Paso shooting suspect wasn’t on her group’s radar screen prior to the shooting. “We had nothing in our files on him,” Beirich wrote in an email. The shooting is the 21st mass killing in the United States in 2019, and the fifth public mass shooting. Before Saturday, 96 people had died in mass killings in 2019 — 26 of them in public mass shootings.

DEMS: Candidates’ reaction swift Covington, a Trump supporter, and retweeting a pair of messages that furthered his recent argument that African Americans had flourished under his administration. The shooting was far more personal for former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, an El Paso native who represented the city in Congress for six years. He suspended campaigning to fly home and “be with my family and be with my hometown.” Former Vice President Joe Biden said he tried to call O’Rourke and told reporters, “Enough is enough.” “This is a sickness,” Biden said. “This is beyond anything that we should be tolerating.” He added: “We can beat the NRA. We can beat the gun manufacturers.” A visibly frustrated Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar said: “I believe that the NRA have long dominated American politics to the point where they have stopped sensible legislation that would have prevented deaths and prevent-

ed killings. They have done it time and time again.” Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, noted: “We are the only country in the world with more guns than people.” “It has not made us safer,” he said. “We can respect the Second Amendment and not allow it to be a death sentence for thousands of Americans.” California Sen. Kamala Harris promised to use an executive action within her first 100 days of taking office to impose gun control. New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker said, “This has got to be a movement, politics or not, we’ve got to make ending this nightmare a movement before it happens to yet another community or another person dies.” Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren tweeted: “Far too many communities have suffered through tragedies like this already. We must act now to end our country’s gun violence epidemic.

DaVe SCherBenCo / STaFF phoTographer

NEwS iN BRiEf PLYMoUtH twP.

income survey planned for some Plymouth Twp. Board of Supervisors have contracted with the Institute for Public Policy and Economic Devel-

opment to conduct an income survey in parts of the township. The purpose of the survey is to see if necessary locations could possibly qualify for grants to make improvements to its sewer system.

All information obtained by the organization will be confidential. The board of supervisors appreciates prompt responses by people who receive the survey. — Staff RepoRt

annual Lake fest held in Harveys Lake The eighth annual Lake Fest street fair was held Saturday in Harveys Lake. The event was sponsored by the Harveys Lake Recreation Association and Making a Difference Ministries and benefitted St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and local youth events. There were vendors, an art contest, food, live music and more. Above: Mike Trevorah, of That Balloon Guy, works on a creation during the event. For more photos from Lake Fest, visit www.citizensvoice.com.

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Amid tough talk, Trump says he could be Iran’s ‘best friend.’ BY DARLENE SUPERVILLE ASSOCIATED PRESS

those claims the city paid was not immediately available. The city did not initially release that information in response to three separate requests for records related to costs paid either by the city or the city’s insurance carriers in connection with K-9 biting incidents. After the newspaper filed an appeal with the state Office of Open Records, Assistant City Attorney Maureen Collins looked further into the matter and determined the records were missed partly because they were Heart and Lung Act claims.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Saturday that military action against Iran was still an option for its downing of an unmanned U.S. military aircraft, but amid heightened tensions he dangled the prospect of eventually becoming TRUMP a n u n l i ke l y “best friend” of America’s longtime Middle Eastern adversary. Trump also said “we very much appreciate” that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard chose not to target a U.S. spy plane carrying more than 30 people. The president’s softer tone Saturday marked a stark contrast to the anti-Iran rhetoric he employed throughout the presidential campaign and presidency, including his use of punishing economic sanctions in an attempt to pressure Iran to give up its quest to build nuclear weapons. “The fact is we’re not going to have Iran have a nuclear weapon,” he said as he left the White House for a weekend at the Camp David presidential retreat. “And when they agree to that, they are going to have a wealthy country, they’re going to be so happy and I’m going to be their best friend.” “I hope that happens. I hope that happens, but it may not,” Trump said. He later said Iran will be hit with unspecified new sanctions on Monday.

Please see COSTS, Page A4

Please see TRUMP, Page A7

THE CITIZENS’ VOICE FILE

Wilkes-Barre Patrolman Dan Roper and his K-9 partner, Skoty, participate in Wilkes-Barre Police Community Day in Kirby Park earlier this month. BY STEVE MOCARSKY STAFF WRITER

olice dogs have been called invaluable resources to law enforcement, including those in the City of Wilkes-Barre. But what is their actual cost, and do the benefits of police K-9 units really outweigh it? The Citizens’ Voice reviewed expenses associated with the Wilkes-Barre Police Department’s two K-9 teams as well as income related to the unit after the city provided records in response to three open-records requests. According to a tally sheet from the city, the police department received $49,106 in connection

with the K-9 unit between 2016 and 2018. That includes $42,365 in donations to help restart and support a unit and $6,741 from the federal Justice Assistance Grant program. According to the tally sheet and a printout of payments from the city’s general fund, the city spent $60,108 on the K-9 unit during those three years. Those costs include the purchase and initial training of the dogs, additional and ongoing training, evaluations, veterinary visits and treatments, boarding, grooming, equipment, accessories and food. Most of the expenses were associated with Patrolman Joseph Homza’s K-9 partner, Chase, and

Patrolman Dan Roper’s K-9 partner, Skoty. About $3,400 went for veterinary bills for retired K-9 Zorro in 2016. Zorro has since died. But the newspaper found some additional expenditures related to the current K-9 teams not included on the tally sheet.

More expenses The city and/or its workers compensation manager spent at least another $46,425 to pay medical bills and lost wages for officers Anthony Falcone and Shane Smith after they were bitten by K-9 Chase in two separate incidents in 2017 and 2018. A breakdown of how much of

Kingston couple committed to BBQ Melissa and Tom Sainclair earn trip to American Royal World Series of Barbecue BY BILL WELLOCK STAFF WRITER

A few years ago, Tom and Melissa Sainclair were burned out from competitive barbecue. The long drives to haul thousands of dollars worth of equipment to events around the East Coast took up all their vacation days, the circuit had become draining, and they had yet to taste first place. “We had come close so many times,” Tom Sainclair said. “About three years ago, we had a bad year. I said, ‘I don’t know

that I want to keep doing this.’” “We said, ‘Let’s go one more year and see what happens, then maybe find something else.’ And the following year, that was our best year ever. That’s just the way it works,” he said. The husband-and-wife team from Kingston (who also compete with brotherin-law David Paulini) go by the name “Pullin’ my MonDAVE SCHERBENCO / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER ey Muscle,” a reference to part of the pork butt. Melissa and Tom Sainclair show off some of the troPlease see BBQ, Page A4

phies they’ve won during their years in competitive barbecue.

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A4 THE CITIZENS' VOICE

SUNDAY, JUNE 23, 2019

Chief: K-9 squad now an ‘entirely different unit’ BY stEVE MocaRsKY Staff WrIter

DaVe SCherBenCo / Staff photographer

Kingston residents Melissa and Tom Sainclair said the competitive barbecue circuit is intense and demanding.

BBQ: Couple recently won big at Va. event from page a1

Each judge does not score every entry in the contest. Instead, competitors are grouped by order of delivery for tables of a few judges each. A so-called “Table of Death” or “Table of Angels” can swing a score down or up. And because competitors don’t know the taste of the judges, crafting a sauce they’ll like becomes less important, Tom Sainclair said. All the competition sauces are good. Instead, it’s about the meat. The secret is to know when the food is exactly, perfectly done. After all their work, they are at the mercy of the judges. The luck of the draw had the Sainclairs on edge as the Fredericksburg festival counted down the top places. It had been a horrible offseason. They had to deal with health and personal issues. They had to repair their trailer ahead of the festival. When they pulled into Fredericksburg, it had been more than seven months since they had been doing competition-level barbecue. The competition had an ancillary sauce contest. They usually wouldn’t enter, but it was free to participate and came with a $500 first place prize. Melissa gave it a shot, straining together different sauces and tinkering to create her entry. They got first place. “I was in tears,” Melissa Sainclair said. It was a good omen of things to come. They took first place in the chicken category, then eighth in ribs. They were in the hunt. Pork is traditionally their worst category, but they ended with a fifth-place finish. “I’m starting to sweat a bit. I’m thinking we have a shot,” Tom Sainclair said. “If we do well in the brisket, we are in this. Then we got fourth in brisket. Now, I’m really starting to sweat. We have a legit shot at winning this thing.” The festival organizers began counting down the top ten teams overall. They got to third without their name being called. Then judges announced that the second place team had also won a prize specifically for the highest-scoring group from Virginia. “I knew then we were grand champions. I burst out crying,” Tom Sainclair said. “It’s not like we could say we did anything more spectacular than any other week. Everything just kind of fell into alignment,” Melissa Sainclair said. The other teams came over to offer their congratulations and hug the champions. They had come a long way since their first contest, when another team helped them out to fill the water pan in their smoker when they assumed they would have a water hookup at their cooking site. It was kind gestures like that and the camaraderie of the contests that kept the Sainclairs involved even when it was tough going. Now, they’ve earned a chance to join other teams from across the United States this September in one of the country’s barbecue hot spots for a chance at glory.

They recently won “Grand Champion” honors at an event in Fredericksburg, Virginia, earning a trip to the American Royal World Series of Barbecue in Kansas City this September, fulfilling a dream they had been chasing since their start in competitive barbecue five years ago. The event is one of the biggest on the competitive barbecue circuit. Only the Jack Daniel’s World Championship Invitational Barbecue in Tennessee can match it for prestige, Tom Sainclair said. For the team from Northeast Pennsylvania, it’s a chance for “a couple Yankees to kick butt in a traditionally Southern cuisine,” he said. The couple first learned of competitive barbecue while watching a television special on New Year’s Eve. It looked like a lot of fun. They looked at each other. “I’ve never had a clearer vision of what I want to do in my life than right now,” Melissa Sainclair said. “I’ve never loved a woman more than right now,” Tom responded. They jumped into the hobby. Professional competitive barbecue is not like the grilling or smoking people do at home. Consider a piece of chicken they might turn in. They must take the skin off and later put it back in place with meat glue, trim the meat so each piece looks and cooks the same, inject it with phosphates and chicken broth to hold moisture, use different rubs on the meat and the right kind of wood for smoking, all for one or two bites for each judge. Competitors turn in four meats through the day: chicken, pork ribs, a pork cut of either the shoulder or Boston Butt, and beef brisket. The schedule is strict. Tom Sainclair recalls a scene at an a event in which someone went to turn in a dish only to just miss out on the timeline. Upon returning with the bad news, he saw the chef grab the container holding the brisket and heave it across the competition area. “It was not a pretty sight,” he said. “I saw that box sail about 30 yards.” The intensity starts early. Melissa Sainclair used to wake up at 3 a.m. to start their smoker. Now that they have upgraded their gear, she can grab a couple more hours of sleep before one of her favorite parts of the day. “In the morning, when it’s about 4 or 5 a.m., and everyone lights their smokers, the sun is coming up and you can smell the smoke in the air,” Melissa Sainclair said. “The meat is on the smokers and everything’s starting to come alive. Sunrise at the barbecue competition is great.” Once the day starts gathering speed, there is always something to do. They consult a four-page document with detailed instructions for the many moves they will make in the next few hours until the first deadline at noon, when they turn in their chicken. Deadlines follow every 30 minutes after — ribs at 12:30 contact the writer: p.m., pork butt at 1, and final- bwellock@citizensvoice.com 570-821-2051, @CVBillW ly the brisket at 1:30 p.m.

Wilkes-Barre police Chief Joseph Coffay says the department’s K-9 squad is “an entirely different unit” than it was a couple years ago. And while Coffay said training of platoon officers on how to act around K-9 units was another significant step forward, local dog trainer Alan Finn says the platoon training shouldn’t be necessary. Finn, who has trained K-9 units for several area departments, has said patrol officers shouldn’t have any problems with K-9 units that are properly trained. Since he took control of the department in June 2008, Coffay said, the administration has been “committed to fulfilling the contractual obligations to (the K-9 unit’s) training by identifying and implementing a specific training program and sending them to the training that is needed and required.” The K-9 unit was initially trained by Paul Price, of Northeast Police K9 Academy in Wilkes-Barre Twp. Coffay said Penn Vet Working Dog Center — Law Enforcement K9 Training in Philadelphia is now providing training for the unit. Penn Vet had evaluated the dogs in May 2018 after biting incidents. Additionally, Coffay has said, the administration has been “committed to the training of our other officers that work with the K-9 units on a daily basis. They have been trained on how to work with a K-9 unit on a daily basis.”

Biting incidents The department and K-9 unit suffered some black eyes last year after K-9 Chase bit and injured two police officers while working with Patrolman Joseph Homza, Chase’s handler. Chase latched onto officer Anthony Falcone’s leg on Dec. 17, 2017, as Falcone and other officers were attempting to remove an assault suspect from under a pickup truck, where he had been hiding before Chase tracked his scent to it. Falcone suffered “serious

said, the handler of a properly trained dog need only say a command to have a dog release a bite.

Quality of training

the CItIZenS’ VoICe fIle

Wilkes-Barre Patrolman Joseph Homza and his K-9 partner, Chase, participate in an event in 2017. oNLINE EXtRa: read an administrative review of the Dec. 17, 2017 incident during which police officers were bit by K-9 Chase with this story at citizensvoice.com.

During the demonstration with Kane, Finn knelt on the floor across the room from him, and Kane gave a command for Riley to bite Finn. The dog charged toward Finn and, when the dog was a foot away, Kane gave a command to stop, and the dog did, within inches from Finn’s face. On Friday, after being read an administrative review of the incident in which Falcone was bit, Finn said no of ficer that he trained would have released their K-9 partner on the suspect who had been hiding under the truck. City officials have refused to provide a report about the incident involving Smith. The administrative review of the incident involving Falcone became public record when submitted as an exhibit in a civil suit. Falcone joined the suit filed by Joshua Fought, who suffered serious injuries to his back when Chase bit him during an arrest on Public Square on July 18, 2017. A jury acquitted Fought of resisting arrest in connection with the incident, paving the way for the lawsuit. The suit alleges Homza and Chase used excessive force while arresting Fought and that the City of Wilkes-Barre, Mayor Tony George and thenpolice Chief Marcella Lendacky failed to properly train and supervise their police officers. There have been no publicly reported incidents in which an officer or bystander was bit by the city’s other K-9, Skoty, although Wampole told The Citizens’ Voice last year that Skoty had scratched a young girl at a gathering at the home of his handler, officer Dan Roper, after reports surfaced that the dog had seriously injured the girl.

Designing Dogs in Old Forge, said during a K-9 demonstration with Dunmore police officer Jack Kane and K-9 partner Riley last fall that he saw no value in instructing of ficers how to behave around a police K-9 and the K-9’s handler. “Jack can’t worry about every officer who runs around. He just worries about his dog. The other officers aren’t in danger because Jack’s in control,” Finn had said. According to then city police commander Ron Foy’s administrative review of the incident involving Falcone, dated Feb. 1, 2018, Homza did not maintain control of his dog and should not have released Chase until ascertaining the whereabouts of all involved officers. Foy also reported that none of the three officers at the scene with Homza ever heard Homza give a verbal warning that he was releasing the dog on the suspect. “In fact, to the contrary, involved officers have posed the question to me, why didn’t officer Homza yell an alert before he released Chase?” Foy wrote. Finn said everything comes down to the way a dog and handler are trained. He said he trains officers to shout a warn- contact the writer: a different opinion ing three times before deploy- smocarsky@citizensvoice.com Finn, owner of Alan Finn’s ing a K-9 on a suspect. And, he 570-821-2110, @mocarskyCV

cuts and puncture wounds” in the incident, according to an administrative review. Chase latched onto officer Shane Smith’s leg on Sept. 4, 2018, as Smith was holding a perimeter and the dog and Homza were walking by him while tracking a suspect who had fled, according to a source in the police department and a court filing. After Smith was bit, Coffay conducted a review of the incident. Although city officials refused to release a report, then city administrator Ted Wampole had said about two weeks after the incident that the city would implement training on interaction with police K-9s for all department platoon officers based on Coffay’s recommendation in response to the incident. Wampole had said both Chase and Skoty, the police department’s other K-9, would be used solely for narcotics detection work until training of platoon officers was complete. But last week, Coffay said the training of other officers “was not in response to Officer Smith’s bite. It was me initiating training that I have always felt was a good idea and I felt was necessary to institute it at that time.”

costs: Some invoices, receipts missed from page a1

A newspaper review of invoices and receipts related to the K-9 unit also found a $1,900 payment for new decals on a K-9 patrol vehicle and a $719.96 payment for a kennel and kennel cover were not included in the tally sheet totals or among city ledger payments provided with the records. City Finance Director Brett Kittrick said they were missed because they were recorded under general police department line items rather than K-9 unit line items. Many receipts from K9 Korner could not be reconciled against the ledger because the records were photocopies of mostly illegible carbon copies, and many single payments noted on the general ledger likely included multiple invoices from the Wilkes-Barre Twp. dog service and supply business. City officials also could not say Friday if the city paid anything to have any police patrol vehicles retrofitted to accommodate K-9s.

Worth the cost Police Chief Joseph Coffay said the city’s K-9 unit is “well worth it if they are trained properly and you have the right handlers assigned to the unit.” “I have made sure that they are trained and I am sure that both handlers are where they should be,” Coffay said in an emailed response to questions on the unit’s worth and value. Coffay said that in order to have a K-9 unit, there are costs associated with training and care of the dogs, which include feeding, boarding and vet costs. “It is not a money-making

10 biggest single K-9 expenditures $23,500 — for the purchase of K-9s Chase and Skoty and their training with their handlers, paid over 2016 to northeast police K-9 academy. $9,500 — for K-9 training, paid in august 2018 to northeast police K-9 academy. $3,708 — for K-9 inservice training, paid in november 2018 to penn Vet Working Dog Center. $3,324 — for veterinary treatment of Zorro, paid in april 2016 to northeast Veterinary referral hospital. $2,500 — for providing two K-9 teams with two training sessions each month in 2017, paid in January 2017 to north-

east police K-9 academy. $1,900 — for removing existing graphics and printing and installing new graphics for K-9 vehicle, paid in September 2016 to frontline. $1,800 — for two K-9 ballistic vests, paid in november 2017 and march 2018 to roll Call. $1,719 — for boarding of Skoty for 30 days, food, grooming, leashes, collars and crates, paid in august 2016 to K-9 Korner. $1,350 — t-shirts to sell as a fundraiser, paid in october 2016 to alexrad. $1,250 — for K-9 training, paid in february 2016 to northeast police K-9 academy.

wanted for homicide in another state. “As the suspect tried to escape out the back (of the residence), he saw the dog and handler and went back inside, stopping his escape. The use and possible deployment of the K-9 resulted in the suspect giving up without incident,” he said. “This scenario is constantly repeated, sometimes on a daily basis,” Coffay said.

Paying for itself Coffay noted another occasion on which Homza and Chase conducted a track and search for a violent felon. “The significance of that search was that there was an extended period of time between the incident and the track, but the dog was able to track and find the suspect,” Coffay said. Homza and Chase also were involved in searching a vehicle and finding $25,000 in hidden drug proceeds, which Coffay said never would have been found without the dog. “In most drug cases, the dogs are utilized to find drug evidence and proceeds from drug trafficking. In those cases, the drug proceeds are then seized and utilized by law enforcement to further investigate drug trafficking cases and can be used to fund the unit, thereby paying for itself through forfeiture,” Coffay said. Since late 2016, WilkesBarre’s police dogs have been utilized in their patrol function, for arrests, for searches of evidence and for tracking. They have participated in numerous community events and have been a part of the community policing program, Coffay said.

ue on a daily basis, not just to the city police department, but to other partnering agencies operating in Luzerne County. Those agencies include the state Office of Attorney General, the Kingston and Ashley police departments, FBI Safe Streets, the U.S. Marshals Service and the federal Drug Enforcement Agency. The K-9s’ duties have included non-search incidents such as general arrests and crowd control during arrests, and the dogs have been useful as deterrents during arrests, Coffay said. “Just the presence of the dog has led to several instances where the wanted and combative subject will desist in their violent behavior, resulting in arrest without incident, thereby reducing the risk to the officers and the defendants,” CofNumerous benefits fay said. Coffay said the members of Coffay noted that Roper and contact the writer: the city’s K-9 Unit have shown his partner Skoty assisted with smocarsky@citizensvoice.com and continue to show their val- the apprehension of a subject 570-821-2110, @mocarsky venture whereupon we can say that they bring in revenue, so your associated costs do not reflect the program accurately,” he said. Coffay argued that the $46,425 spent on Falcone’s and Smith’s Heart and Lung claims in connection with the bites from Chase “are not expenses of the K-9 Unit.” “As police officers, there is a risk to our safety and wellbeing on a daily basis. We are involved in incidents every day where there is a risk of being injured or killed,” Coffay said. “As in these two instances, we were involved in an incident where an officer was injured. It happens all the time and that is why we have medical insurance which paid for the injuries sustained while they were on duty,” he said.

WB_VOICE/PAGES [A03] | 06/24/19

20:21 | GAYDOSKRIS

tHE CItIzEns’ VOICE

Local TUESDAY, JUNE 25, 2019

New section of Back Mtn. Trail debuts Trail section was named after longtime volunteers.

W-B K-9 costs even higher The city bore some medical costs not paid by insurance.

BY BILL WELLOCK STAFF WRITER

DALLAS TWP. — Judith Rimple has put nearly three decades of her life into the Back Mountain Trail. On Monday, the organization behind the trail honored that work when it named the newest section after her and her husband. The “Judith & David Rimple Loop Trail” starts at the end of Lt. Michael Cleary Drive in Dallas Twp. From there, it heads south, winding next to a pond and past ferns, everg reens and deciduous trees before curling back around to finish next to the township municipal building. Walkers can finish the loop by walking up Dorchester Drive, past the municipal building and taking a right onto Lt. Michael Cleary Drive, or they can turn around and make it and out-and-back walk. The path is about 2,600 feet long from the trailhead to its end. Wooden bridges cross streams and marshy areas, and benches offer places to rest. The trailhead is named after the Back Mountain Bloomers garden club, which has raised more than $100,000 for the trail through its garden tours. The Anthracite Scenic Trails Association hopes to eventually connect the section to trail behind Lum’s Fernbrook Inn on Main Road and to add trail heading north, said board member Craig Yarrish. “It’s a bucolic setting. We felt it was worth it to do this

BY STEVE MOCARSKY STAFF WRITER

MARk MoRAn / STAFF PhoTogRAPhER

with the pond and the woods in the middle of the Back Mountain,” said ASTA treasurer Richard Cochrane. Judith Rimple moved to the area about 30 years ago from Boulder, Colorado. After moving, she went looking for good places to bicycle and walk in nature and stumbled upon an old railroad bed between Luzerne Borough and Carverton Road. She made her way along the

At top, Jean Kolojejchick, left, and Judith and David Rimple cut the ribbon for the newest section of the Back Mountain Trail, at left. Above, a painted turtle rests near the trail before the ceremony.

old railroad high above the highway and thought it would make a good spot for a trail. “I thought ‘My God, this is outstanding.’ You’re way above the people below you. It’s just beautiful,” she said. She began fundraising and working toward that goal. ‘They just trusted me, and I said ‘I’m going to make this thing go,’” she said. The hardest part was

starting the project, Judith Rimple said. Finding funding and dealing with rightof-way issues is a challenge. Now, ASTA oversees a trail that runs from Parry Street in Luz er ne to Lower Demunds Road in Dallas Twp. “We made the first stop way back there,” Judith Rimple said, “and we just kept going.”

she said. The Heart & Lung Act requires that police officers and firefighters who miss work for injuries suffered on the job receive full pay, rather than 80% paid through workers compensation. Ference said the city paid the following related to Falcone’s injuries:  $29,947 in wages under the Heart & Lung Act.  $1,459 for medical costs.  $2,915 in expenses, which includes legal costs of $1,089. The city paid the following related to Smith’s injuries:  $28,946 in wages under the Heart & Lung Act.  $6,140 for medical costs.  $209 in expenses. The $69,616 in total claims exceeds by 50% the $46,425 in costs related to Falcone’s and Smith’s injuries initially reported by the city. It exceeds by 11% the $62,708 it cost to buy, train, outfit and maintain the K-9 unit’s dogs over the past three years. Falcone was injured when Chase latched onto his leg on Dec. 17, 2017, as Falcone and other officers were removing an assault suspect hiding under a pickup truck. Chase bit Smith’s leg on Sept. 4, 2018, as Smith was holding a perimeter and the dog and handler Joseph Homza were walking by him while tracking a suspect who had fled, according to a source in the police department and a court filing.

WILKES-BARRE — Costs related to a city police K-9’s attacks on two police officers are 50% higher than initially reported. Following The Citizens’ Voice review of costs associated with the city’s police K-9 unit, the newspaper reported Sunday that the city and/or its workers compensation insurer paid $46,425 in medical and wage claims related to bites K-9 Chase inflicted on officers Anthony Falcone and Shane Smith in separate incidents in 2017 and 2018. Assistant City Attorney Maureen Collins had said the city paid the claims through the city’s general fund, but police Chief Joseph Coffay had indicated that insurance covered the cost of treatment of injuries. Human Resources Director Nicole Ference wasn’t immediately available Friday to verify how the payments were made. On Monday, she explained that the city is self-insured, so all of the cost incurred from injuries comes from the city’s general fund. Ference said the city’s workers compensation administrator has access to a city account to pay medical bills for employees injured on the job. Heart & Lung Act payments are paid through Contact the writer: the city’s bi-weekly payroll, smocarsky@citizensvoice.com, and those wages are tax-free, 570-821-2110, @MocarskyCV

Sweet Valley woman accused of hacking New W-B Twp. retail, restaurant spaces planned daughter with machete BY DENISE ALLABAUGH STAFF WRITER

Plans are moving forward for new retail and restaurant developments in areas destroyed by the tornado that ripped through Wilkes-Barre Twp. last year. Robert Tamburro, trustee and general partner with TFP Limited, owner of the Arena Hub Plaza, said an entity in his organization purchased the site of the former Ashley Furniture at 251 Mundy St., which was destroyed in the June 13, 2018 tornado and demolished. Retail and restaurant developments are planned for the site and he said he has some prospects but nothing is finalized. “We’re excited about doing something different there,” he said. “It was an opportunity for us to take something that is currently vacant and create something new so we’re excited about it.” After the tornado, Ashley Furniture moved to a new location behind the Wyoming

MARk MoRAn / STAFF PhoTogRAPhER

New developments are coming to the Ashley Furniture site, seen here during cleanup efforts in 2018. Valley Mall that formerly housed H.H. Gregg. A new 6,300-square-foot building also is planned for the site that formerly was the Latona Law building at 275 Mundy St. that was demolished, Tamburro said. Mission BBQ restaurant will occupy about 3,600 square feet of space in the building and another tenant is planned for that building as well. Tamburro said

Contact the writer: bwellock@citizensvoice.com 570-821-2051, @CVBillW

housed Tammac Holdings Corp. and other tenants before it was demolished, he said. That building could be up to 12,000 square feet, he said. Earlier this month, WilkesBarre Twp. Planning Commission approved a plan to build a stand-alone Panera Bread in Wilkes-Barre Twp. Commons at the site where the previous restaurant was ravaged by a tornado last year. The new restaurant will feature a drive-thru and have outdoor seating as well. Wilkes-Barre Twp. Zoning Officer Thomas Zedolik said he expects work on the new Panera Bread will start this summer. “We’re pleased Panera Bread is coming back and we’re looking forward to continue moving on from last year’s tornado,” Tamburro said. “We’re grateful for the opportunity to continue developing in Wilkes-Barre Twp.”

another tenant is interested, but it has not been finalized. A permit was issued for site work to begin to construct Mission BBQ and Tamburro said he expects the restaurant to open in December. Retail and restaurant developments also are planned for the site of another office building behind the Contact the writer: former Latona Law building dallabaugh@citizensvoice.com at 100 Commerce Blvd. that 570-821-2115, @CVAllabaugh

BY JAMES HALPIN STAFF WRITER

The machete injured Brunner’s right hand, causing an open wound and a moderate amount of bleeding, according to police. After the attack, Kalinowski fled the scene on an all-terrain vehicle, which she crashed at the back of her own home, the complaint said. Police found the ATV overturned at the back of the home with a sheathed machete attached to the handlebars. Kalinowski surrendered after police called her home phone and directed her to exit. Police charged Kalinowski with aggravated assault, simple assault and harassment. Magisterial District Judge Joseph D. Spagnuolo Jr. arraigned Kalinowski on the charges Sunday morning and ordered her jailed with bail set at $25,000. A preliminary hearing was set for July 2.

A elderly Sweet Valley woman is facing aggravated assault charges after police say she attacked her daughter with a machete over the weekend. Judith Kalinowski, 73, of 57 Wandell Road, is accused of cutting the hand of her daughter, Michele Brunner, during a dispute Saturday night. According to the complaint, troopers were dispatched to Kalinowski’s home around 8:40 p.m. Saturday to a report of a domestic violence assault. Brunner told police she had been looking for her father when she approached Kalinowski at her brother’s neighboring property. Kalinowski responded by yelling at Brunner and calling her a “bitch,” according to the complaint. When Brunner began walking to her vehicle, Kalinowski followed and slashed Contact the writer: at her with a machete, police jhalpin@citizensvoice.com 570-821-2058 said.

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WB_VOICE/PAGES [A01] | 07/08/19

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the citizens’

22:45 | BOONELAURA

Happy 40th? The Happy Meal turns 40, but not everyone is happy about it. C1

www.citizensvoice.com

BaCk MOuntain natiOnaL, GReateR PittStOn aRea MOvinG On in LittLe LeaGue ChaMPiOnShiPS. B1

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TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2019

HATE ON DISPLAY? W-B probing alleged hate group’s plaque on city monument BY STEVE MOCARSKY STAFF WRITER

WILKES-BARRE — City officials are investigating how a brick-like plaque inscribed with the name of an alleged hate group was quietly affixed to a monument on Public Square. The stone monolith, which has the city’s beehive symbol mounted to the top, has 48 such plaques affixed on each of its four sides. The names of people, families, businesses and organizations as well as phrases and questions are engraved on the 192 plaques. “East Coast Knights of the True Invisible Empire” is engraved into one of the plaques in the top row on one of the four sides of the monument, suggesting it was one of the last 12 plaques to be affixed. The Southern Poverty Law Center, a U.S. nonprofit organization that purports to monitor the activities of domestic hate groups and other extremists, lists the East Coast Knights among more than 50 “Ku Klux Klan hate groups” operating in 2018. According to the East Coast Knights website, members “do not preach hate” and merely “wish to preserve the white, Christian ways … (t)he same way other races wish to preserve their race and beliefs.” The East Coast Knights did not return messages seeking comment.

Please see PLAQUE, Page A5

LUZERNE COUNTY

Four firms submit tax collection service bids A contract with Northeast Revenue Services expires at the end of the year. BY ERIC MARK STAFF WRITER

NAACP chief concerned Ronald Felton, president of the NAACP’s Wilkes-Barre branch, said the monument would be among the topics discussed at a branch meeting tonight, after which he believed the organization would release a statement. Personally, Felton said, he had concerns about the city agreeing to affix the name of a hate group to a monument on Public Square. While he has had no interaction with the East Coast Knights, Felton said he would trust the Southern Poverty Law Center’s classification of the organization as a hate group.

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MARK MORAN / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

the beehive monument on Public Square in Wilkes-Barre was first installed in 2006 as part of the city’s bicentennial celebration.

Body of Plains Twp. man found in NY lake ASSOCIATED PRESS Oneida Lake. LENOX, N.Y. — The body Gambini of a 51-year-old Plains Twp. was transman was recovered from a ported to the lake in central New York Onondaga three days after he went missMedi cal ing while swimming. Examiner’s GAMBINI The Oneida County SherOffice for furiff ’s Office said the body of ther investigation. James Gambini was recovGambini was reported missered around 6:15 a.m. Monday ing shortly after 6:30 p.m. Frifrom the South Bay area of day after he jumped off a boat

to swim and never resurfaced. The body of another missing swimmer was recovered from Oneida Lake on Sunday. The sheriff’s office says 62-yearold Richard Whitney of West Monroe, New York, went swimming from a boat at Lakeshore Yacht Club around 3 p.m. SatCOURTESY OF THE ONEIDA DAILY DISPATCH urday. His body was found about 24 hours later by state Crews search Oneida Lake on Saturday for police using sonar equipment. James Gambini, who vanished Friday evening.

Luzerne County officials on Monday released the names of the four firms that submitted proposals to collect delinquent real estate taxes for Luzerne County starting next year. Northeast Revenue Service has operated the county tax claim bureau and collected delinquent taxes for the county since 2010. The company submitted a proposal to continue its services after its contract expires at the end of this year, according to county chief solicitor Romilda Crocamo. Northeast Revenue, based in Plains Twp., has been connected to corruption cases involving the former mayors of Allentown and Scranton, though no charges have been filed against the company or any of its officers or employees. According to Crocamo, three other firms responded to the county’s recent request for proposals for delinquent tax collection services for 2020-22: ■ Jordan Tax Service Inc., a tax collection company based in Washington County in southwestern Pennsylvania. The company, founded in 1932, provides “comprehensive revenue collection services” to school districts, municipalities, counties and authorities, according to its website. ■ Linebarger Attorneys-atLaw, a national law firm “dedicated to the collection of delinquent government receivables,” according to the firm’s website. Linebarger provides “customized collection programs” for clients in the public sector, its website states. ■ Ability Recovery Services LLC, or ARS. The company is family-owned and operates in all 50 states, according to its website. It has an office in Dupont, according to online listings. A committee will consider the four proposals and will recommend one to county council, according to county Manager David Pedri. Council will decide which proposal to approve and is not bound by the committee’s recommendation. Please see BIDS, Page A5

Bible shortage? Publishers say tariffs could cause it Millions of Bibles are printed in China each year and tariffs could make them more expensive. BY TRAVIS LOLLER ASSOCIATED PRESS

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Religious publishers say President Donald Trump’s most recent proposed tariffs on Chinese imports could result in a Bible shortage. MARTA LAVANDIER / ASSOCIATED PRESS That’s because millions of Religious publishers say tariffs on Chinese Bibles — some estimates put it imports could hurt the evangelical efforts at 150 million or more — are of Christian organizations that give away printed in China each year. Bibles as part of their ministry. Critics of a proposed tariff say

it would make the Bible more expensive for consumers and hurt the evangelism efforts of Christian organizations that give away Bibles as part of their ministry. HarperCollins Christian Publishing President and CEO Mark Schoenwald recently told the U.S. Trade Representative that the company believes the Trump administration “never intended to impose a ‘Bible

Tax’ on consumers and religious organizations,” according to a transcript of his remarks provided by the publisher. The two largest Bible publishers in the United States, Zondervan and Thomas Nelson, are owned by HarperCollins, and they incur close to 75% of their Bible manufacturing expenses in China, Schoenwald said. Together, they command 38% of the American Bible market, he said. The full size of that market is

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difficult to gauge. A spokeswoman at HarperCollins said they believe around 20 million Bibles are sold in the U.S. each year. T he NDP g roup, which includes NPD BookScan and PubTrack Digital, captured 5.7 million print Bible sales in the U.S. in 2018. But that figure doesn’t capture all sales, including the large number of Bibles sold by publishers directly to congregations.

As anniversary nears, beware fake moon rocks. Page B7

Please see BIBLES, Page A5

WB_VOICE/PAGES [A05] | 07/08/19

22:03 | BOONELAURA

LocaL / NatioN

TUESDAY, JULY 9, 2019

THE CITIZENS' VOICE A5

PLaQUE: Engraved bricks available for $35 From page a1

Courtesy oF Wilkes-Barre City poliCe

Police said Monday a pit bull named Ace was stolen from Coal Street in Wilkes-Barre.

Wilkes-Barre police seek puppy thief BY BoB KaLiNoWSKi staFF Writer

has vision problems and will stand out to people who may see him. The vision problems cause the dog to be physically impaired, he said. City police posted the incident on its Facebook page with the headline, “Puppy Thief Alert!” Police asked anyone with information on Ace’s whereabouts to call Officer Dan Duffy at 570-208-4118. “Anonymous callers are welcome,” police wrote. “Let’s help get ‘Ace’ home.”

WILKES-BARRE — City police are trying to track down a puppy with vision problems that was stolen on Coal Street on Monday morning. Police said the owner of the dog — a pit bull named Ace — reported the animal was taken around 11 a.m. near 154 Coal St. A black Chevrolet Impala pulled up to the dog and a passenger snatched the animal before the car fled, the contact the writer: owner told police. bkalinowski@citizensvoice.com The owner told police Ace 570-821-2055; @cvbobkal

BiDS: Tax claims went private in 2010 From page a1

charging documents state. A Northeast Revenue spokesman said the company had been “fully cooperative with any and all inquiries and requests” from authorities in connection with the Courtright investigation. The county commissioners under the county’s previous form of government privatized the county’s tax claim bureau in 2010.

After Bill Courtright resigned as mayor of Scranton and pleaded guilty to felony corruption charges last week, charging documents stated that Courtright demanded Northeast Revenue pay him $4,000 to retain its contract collecting delinquent taxes and refuse fees for Scranton. Northeast Revenue paid contact the writer: Cour tright through an emark@citizensvoice.com intermediary in 2017, the 570-821-2117

City Administrator Rick Gazenski said he would check into the East Coast Knights organization and into the city’s process of selling the plaques. “Why would they engrave that without doing some research as to what they’re putting up?” Gazenski said. “If there’s a good reason to have it removed, I’ll strongly recommend it be removed and the donation returned.” But city Attorney Tim Henry said he doesn’t think the city can lawfully refuse to display the name of the organization when the names of other organizations are displayed on the monument. “We may not agree with what they stand for, but they have a right to advertise their organization, as distasteful as it is,” Henry said. “They have 1st Amendment rights like everybody else.” Henry noted that the city

‘We may not agree with what they stand for, but they have a right to advertise their organization, as distasteful as it is. They have 1st Amendment rights like everybody else.’ tiM HENRY City attorney

“took a lot of flack” when it allowed the Freedom From Religion Foundation to pay $50 to erect a banner on Public Square during the 2012 holiday season stating: “At this Season of the Winter Solstice, Let Reason Prevail.” “The city can’t regulate based on conscience,” Henry said. The ACLU of Pennsylvania did not immediately provide input requested Monday afternoon.

the monument base was covered with plaques after the initial fund drive. The city relaunched a drive in 2015 and The Citizens’ Voice provided advertising for it, inviting the public to “Help us celebrate Wilkes-Barre” and “Leave your mark on Wilkes-Barre by purchasing an engraved brick for only $35.” Gazenski said the city has collected about $2,300 from brick sales since the 2015 drive began. Sale proceeds are now deposited into the city’s general fund, and space remains on the monument for additional plaques, he said. Specifics on the sale of the plaque to the East Coast Knights weren’t available Monday because city Special Projects Coordinator Patty Hughes was out of the office.

Barre and raise money to celebrate the city’s bicentennial that began in 2006. The project was launched by the newly formed nonprofit Celebrate WilkesBarre Inc. Bill Vinsko, who was city attorney and a Celebrate Wilkes-Barre board member at the time, said on Monday he thought the nonprofit had since become defunct. While it was operating, the city accepted payments for brick plaques and aim was to beautify dropped the funds into the The beehive monument nonprofit’s account. contact the writer: was erected as part of a According to newspaper smocarsky@citizensvoice.com project to beautify Wilkes- archives, less than half of 570-821-2110, @mocarskyCV

BiBLES: Printing moved abroad decades ago From page a1

Regardless, it’s clear the Bible is the top-selling book in the U.S. By comparison, the next best seller in 2018 was Michelle Obama’s “Becoming,” which BookScan estimates sold 3.5 million copies. The proposed 25% tariff would apply to all books, but critics say it would disproportionately affect Bibles and children’s books. Both tend to have specialized printing requirements that Chinese printers are set up to meet while many domestic printers are not. “U.S. printers moved their Bible printing facilities abroad decades ago, leaving no substantial domestic manufacturing alternatives,” Schoenwald said. Stan Jantz, president and CEO of the Evangelical

‘U.S. printers moved their Bible printing facilities abroad decades ago, leaving no substantial domestic manufacturing alternatives.’

Christian Publishers Association, said in a phone interview that over half of worldwide Bible production takes place in China. The tariff would hurt organizations that give away Bibles and also make it difficult for publishers to sell the Bible at a price people can afford, he said. “Traditionally, historically books have been excluded from tariffs,” Jantz added. Biblica, the International Bible Society, is a charitable religious organization that gives away Bibles to people in 55 countries. China represents 72% of the group’s investment in Bible publishing, according to Biblica President and CEO Geof Morin. A Bible tariff would “dramatically affect the number of Bibles we are able to print and give away, impacting the

MaRK ScHoENWaLD HarperCollins Christian publishing

religious freedom of individuals in countries where Bible access is limited and often nonexistent,” Morin said in testimony to the Trade Representative, according to a transcript he provided. The critics also argue that a tariff on books would not advance the purported goals

of the tariff, to stop the Chinese from acquiring American technology, trade secrets and intellectual property. “The printing of books does not require significant technology or know-how that is at risk of theft or appropriation by China,” Tyndale House CEO Mark Taylor said in written comments on the tariffs. For now, the publishers and other Bible distributors must simply wait to see if their pleas will be answered. Trump and President Xi Jinping of China agreed at a recent meeting of the Group of 20 major economies to resume trade negotiations, a decision that puts all the proposed tariffs on hold. Forecasters warned, however, the two sides still face the same differences that caused talks to break down in earlier this year.

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WB_VOICE/PAGES [A01] | 07/18/19

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23:13 | DONLINKEVI

ROUTE 118 ROUNDABOUT PLANS SCRAPPED. A3

‘I WILL NEVER FORGET THIS DAY’

Apollo 11 mission is deeply etched in the memories of many. B7

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FRIDAY, JULY 19, 2019

MIDNIGHT MAKEOVER

W-B monument featuring KKK brick removed in middle of the night

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WVW drops foster care threat

District’s approach to collecting unpaid lunch bills draws county’s attention. BY MICHAEL P. BUFFER STAFF WRITER

Brown, who likely will replace George as mayor in January given Brown’s win of both major party tickets in the May primary, asked four council members to hold off on appointments until he became mayor.

T he Wyoming Valley West School District is going with another approach to collect unpaid student lunch bills. The district will no longer warn parents that their children could end up in foster care if they don’t pay up. Around 1,000 students owed a total of $22,467, and the district recently mailed a batch of roughly 40 letters with the foster-care warning, Director of Federal Programs Joseph Muth said. The new approach came after Luzerne County officials insisted the district “cease and desist from making these representations” about potential foster-care placement. The Luzer ne County Children and Youth foster care system is used “when a child has been abused” or “a family has been struck by tragedy,” not “to scare families into paying school lunch bills,” County Manager David Pedri and Children and Youth Director Joanne Van Saun wrote Thursday in a letter to district Superintendent Irvin DeRemer. Future collection letters will not mention anything about foster care, and the district will send letters apologizing to parents who received letters with the foster-care warning, school board Vice President David Usavage said. Muth, who signed the letter with the foster-care warning, said the school board will send new letters. Muth also said he made a mistake by not having DeRemer review the letter with the foster-care warning.

Please see BOARDS, Page A5

Please see BILLS, Page A6

MARK MORAN / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Patrons at the Farmers Market on Thursday walk by the former site of a monument on Public Square that included a KKK brick. BY JAMES HALPIN AND STEVE MOCARSKY STAFF WRITERS

Under cover of darkness Wednesday night, city employees demolished the Public Square monument featuring a Ku Klux Klan brick that had become the subject of intense controversy in recent days. The controversy reached a flashpoint last week when activist Gene Stilp attempt-

ed to chisel what he termed an “abhorrent brick” off the city-owned monument in a high-profile publicity stunt. Police charged Stilp with disorderly conduct, with city officials saying the KKK had a First Amendment right to place a brick on the monument just like everybody else. But on Thursday morning, Mayor Tony George announced he directed the

monument to be removed in its entirety. The monument is not part of the ongoing plans to renovate Public Square that the city is moving forward with in conjunction with Diamond City Pa r tn e r s hi p, h e s a i d, although he acknowledged the flare-up involving Stilp also played a role in his decision. Please see BRICK, Page A5

THE CITIZENS’ VOICE FILE

The brick bearing the name of the East Coast Knights of the True Invisible Empire was purchased in 2016 but was only recently affixed to the monument in downtown Wilkes-Barre.

W-B council OKs George’s board appointments BY STEVE MOCARSKY STAFF WRITER

WILKES-BARRE — Mayor Tony George’s request for council to approve his appointments to boards and authorities again proved to be contentious Tuesday night. Council voted 3-2 on one appointment and three reap-

pointments and 4-1 on two appointments. Councilw o m a n Beth GilGEORGE bert joined the majority in approving the appointments of Robin Shudak and Tony Thomas

to the Shade Tree Commission because the commission was recently “resurrected” and it was “important to fill the vacancies. She also said Shudak and Thomas are qualified to serve on the commission and have “no connections to the administration.” Counc i l me n Tony

Brooks and Bill Barrett and chairman Mike Belusko voted to approve all appointments and reappointments. Gilbert and Mike Merritt both voted against all of George’s appointments to boards and authorities at last month’s council meeting after George

Dangerous heat arrives in region today Temperatures today, Saturday will be in the 90s — and it will feel even warmer. BY BILL WELLOCK STAFF WRITER

Summer heat is reaching fever pitch. Today and Saturday will bring intense heat to Northeast Pennsylvania. High temSEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER peratures will be in the 90s, Kassidee Kapalka, 8, of Dallas, holds her nose after and it will feel even hotter. The sliding down the waterslide at Frances Slocum State National Weather Service issued an excessive heat warnPark pool in Kingston Twp. on Wednesday.

ing in place from this afternoon through Saturday night. The heat index — a measure of how hot the environment feels when relative humidity is considered with air temperature — could reach 108 degrees in the Wyoming Valley. And that’s in the shade. Heat index values refer to measurements in shady spots with light wind, so a walk in full sun could increase those numbers by up to 15 degrees. It’s potentially dangerous weather, especially for children and the elderly.

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The Wilkes-Barre Fire Department will add a third advanced life support ambulance to its usual complement of two ALS ambulances over the weekend, from 7:30 a.m. Friday through 7:30 a.m. Sunday. “Our emergency ambulances run nonstop during weather events like this,” said fire chief Jay Delaney in an email. “Generally people with pre-existing medical conditions like Heart Disease and COPD have a difficult time with the heat as does the very young and the elderly.”

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Trump claims he tried to stop ‘send her back’ chant. Page A8

Wilkes-Barre City has no plans for cooling stations or shelters, but will open them in the case of an emergency, such as a major power outage or loss of air conditioning in a nursing home, for example. Because high temperatures usually lead to a spike in electricity usage that can tax the power grid, the city fire department will check with nursing homes to make sure their backup generators are working in case of a power outage. Please see HEAT, Page A7

WB_VOICE/PAGES [A05] | 07/18/19

23:14 | DONLINKEVI

from page a1

FRIDAY, JULY 19, 2019

THE CITIZENS' VOICE A5

BriCk: Placed three weeks ago from page a1

“I guess a lot of it had to do with that, but the thing was it was coming down anyway, so why should I let the controversy keep going on?” George said. The monument was erected in 2008 and featured the city’s beehive symbol mounted to the top. City officials allowed members of the public to purchase bricks for $35 and have them engraved and affixed to the sides of the monument. The controversial brick was placed three weeks ago under the name of the East Coast Knights of the True Invisible Empire, the local chapter of the KKK that has a history of recruiting in the city. George said that although the brick was only recently placed on the monument, it was in fact purchased back in 2016. City officials installed it recently because they were waiting for a batch of bricks to put up together, he said. Asked why city officials didn’t simply inform Stilp last week that the statue was coming down, George said city officials had still been working to track down the monument’s original owner, Celebrate Wilkes-Barre Inc. “We were still deliberating what we were going to do with it,” George said. “It took us a while to find out who was on that Celebrate Wilkes-Barre, and we contacted them. We’re not going to deface anything because it wasn’t ours. But they said they’re defunct and they have no interest in it at all.” George issued the demolition order Wednesday, and city Department of Public Works employees removed the monument after Public Square was closed Wednesday night “so nobody got hurt,” he said. Those who have placed bricks on the monument will be allowed to get them back, he said. The bricks will first have to be removed from the column and then the city will announce the procedure for collecting them, he said. Stilp, 69, is due in court to face a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge next month for his performance last week. After mounting a ladder in front of police, Stilp tried to chisel the KKK brick off the monument and then tried covering it with roofing cement before officers put him in handcuffs. Reached for comment Thursday, Stilp said he was glad city officials “have come to their senses.” “I’m happy that the city took the advice I gave them last Friday about removing the monument,” said Stilp, who called for city officials to drop the charges against him. “They should have listened to reason a while ago.” City Councilwoman Beth

Sean mCKeag / Staff photographer

Wilkes-Barre Council Chairman Mike Belusko, left, listens during Thursday night’s council meeting.

Visit citizensvoice.com for video from thursday night’s Wilkes-Barre City Council meeting. Gilbert, who also strongly opposed the KKK brick, welcomed the brick’s removal on her Facebook page. “While I don’t know that taking down the entire monum e nt w a s t h e b r ave s t approach, I am proud that the city chose to finally reject hate,” Gilbert said.

reaction mixed at council meeting Most members of the public who spoke about the monument removal at Thursday’s night’s city council meeting supported the action. City resident Jim Burns George said that rather than removing the monument, the city should have removed only the brick. Ronald Felton, president of the Wilkes-Barre chapter of the NAACP, said branch members are “delighted” that the monument was removed. Felton also said members were happy to see an editorial in The Citizens’ Voice calling for the removal of the brick, with Stilp’s efforts to remove it and with George “actually getting it done. This sends a clear message that hate and intolerance are not welcome in our city.” But Harry Hamilton, a former NFL safety and son of the late Stan Hamilton, who advocated for and ministered to the poor and disenfranchised in the Wilkes-Barre area for decades, had a different take. Hamilton said he was “somewhat saddened” to see that the brick had been removed. “There are those on this council who demanded that it be removed even if in the dark of night. While I can fully understand that reaction, it allows the hood to stay on the perpetrators. It allows their identity not to be demanded or commanded, but hidden,” Hamilton said. “Put the KKK plaque back up and let them be heard.” The receipt for the sale of the KKK brick bore the name of Carl Williams and an address of a post office box in Texas. A money order was used to pay for brick, so the

identity of the buyer could not be confirmed. Mailings the city sent to the post office box in Texas came back “undeliverable.” Hamilton, who identified himself only as “H” on a public speaking form, brought a poster with a collage of local newspaper clippings, photos and fliers about race and racism from the 1990s, with clippings about race and racism across America in 1965 on the other side. He said it shows “how active the Klan was in this area … at that time and how they firebombed or otherwise subjected Dr. Stan Hamilton to arson at his home because he spoke out about racism.” Hamilton said the poster spoke to council chairman Mike Belusko’s “demand or command” for Hamilton to identify himself before he began speaking. “I’m forced to give my address, I’m forced to be subjected to retribution for coming in here and having the audacity to speak out against racism — and talk about the dangerous times that we live in — that is dividing this nation,” while the buyer of the KKK brick is not, Hamilton said. Hamilton called for dialogue on race with the KKK and the community, as he said his father called for 25 years ago. He also took the local media to task for the “recruitment coverage that they have given the KKK by putting it and blasting it on the front page of the paper. … They have succeeded in recruitment efforts.” Community activist Angel Jireau criticized the local media for “always and mostly” failing to report issues of civil rights and diversity brought up at council meetings. Jireau also welcomed dialogue with members of the KKK and with members of the community and community leaders on those issues. Contact the writers: jhalpin@citizensvoice.com 570-821-2058 smocarsky@citizensvoice.com 570-821-2110

Boards: Contentious meeting from page a1

Gilbert said Brown was afraid George was trying to “stack” boards and authorities with supporters, and Merritt thought Brown should have input on people his administration will have to work with beginning next year. George has maintained that previous mayors filled empty board seats, and noted that Brown voted to approve previous mayor Tom Leighton’s appointments while Brown and George sat on council in 2015 even though they knew Leighton was not seeking reelection. Gilbert said she voted against appointing Belusko to the Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority because she thought it could pose a conflict of interest and didn’t see a need for a member of council to sit on the authority. She said council members could attend or review the minutes of authority meetings if they wanted to keep abreast of important issues. She voted against the reappointments of Robert Jabers and Paul Maher to the city parking authority because Jabers’ term doesn’t expire

until Dec. 31, Maher has been serving under an expired term, and she thought others should be given the opportunity to apply for the posts. She voted against city parking enforcement supervisor Tom Unvarsk y’s appointment to the city traffic committee because he was a George administration hire. During public comment, Bob Kadlubosky, who runs a towing business and is a frequent critic of the administration, had asked Belusko to recuse himself from voting on his own appointment and suggested George wanted someone on the board to help him get a job at the authority.

Resident Linda Joseph said it made sense to have a council member on the authority so council could keep abreast of upcoming issues that could affect city residents, such as a new stormwater fee. Council unanimously approved all other items on the agenda. Contact the reporter: smocarsky@citizensvoice.com 570-821-2110, @mocarskyCV

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In addressing council Thursday night, Harry Hamilton said he was ‘somewhat saddened’ to see the brick had been removed because it ‘allows the hood to stay on the perpetrators.’

Sean mCKeag / Staff photographer

Ronald Felton, president of the Wilkes-Barre chapter of the NAACP, was delighted the monument had been removed, saying it ‘sends a clear message that hate and intolerance are not welcome in our city.’

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THEIR FAIR SHARE As colleges increase their payments in lieu of taxes, the debate continues over whether it’s enough

BY STEVE MOCARSKY STAFF WRITER

THE CITIZENS’ VOICE FILE

Banners line a walkway through the King’s College campus in Wilkes-Barre.

MARK MORAN / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Two Wilkes-Barre colleges that gobble up downtown properties and take them off the tax rolls contribute what experts say is their fair share to the city. A review of tax-exempt properties in Luzerne County shows Wilkes University and King’s College make payments in lieu of taxes, or PILOTs, of $100,000 ONLINE each annuGo to The ally to the Citizens’ city. Voice webFor Wilsite for a kes, that searchable represents database of about 12.4 properties. percent of wh at i t s annual $804,474 tax bill would be if its 111 tax-exempt properties were taxed. The properties have a total assessed value of $61.9 million. King’s PILOT is about 15.7 percent of what its annual $635,181 tax bill would be if its 125 tax-exempt properties were on the city tax roll. Those properties have a total assessed value of $48.9 million. Experts recommend institutions with tax-exempt property valued at $15 million and up should give a PILOT of 25 percent of what their tax bills would be if they were taxed. Institutions that provide community programs that benefit residents should receive up to a 50 percent PILOT deduction, bringing their recommended PILOT to 12.5 percent of what their tax bills would be if they were taxed.

Wilkes University students make their way along campus in Wilkes-Barre, at the site of the university’s Campus Gateway project.

ADVE RTISE M E NT

4 high schools exceed state SAT average Dallas High School led the way among county high schools with 1129.9 average. BY MICHAEL P. BUFFER STAFF WRITER

Four of 15 high schools in Luzerne and Wyoming counties had scores on the SAT college entrance exam in 2018 that exceeded the state average. Dallas High School had the highest average at 1129.9, which was the 100th best in the state. The state Department of Education has posted the SAT scores from 641 high schools across the state in 2018. Lake-Lehman had the sec-

Students leave Dallas High day in 2017. ond highest average at 1100.6 — 180th in the state. Tunkhannock Area at 1095.7 and Crestwood at 1049.1 also

of 1068. Pittston Area had the sixth highest score in the area at 1062.2. Students get two separate scores on the SAT exam — math and evidence-based reading and writing. The scores for each range from 200 to 800, so when combined, the score range is 400 to 1600 points. GAR High School in WilkesBarre had the lowest average score in the area at 917.9. The school’s ranking in the state THE CITIZENS’ VOICE FILE was 566th. Dallas had the highest score School at end of a school in the area in 2017 at 1116. The high school’s ranking in the exceeded the state average of state rose from 124th in 2017 to 1086. Berwick Area had an 120th in 2018. average score of 1083.8, which Please see SAT, Page A4 exceeded the national average

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A6 THE CITIZENS' VOICE

SUNDAY, MARCH 3, 2019

TAX: Some say King’s, Wilkes not contributing enough FROM PAGE A1

The model is based on a highly regarded PILOT program used in Boston since 2009, which many experts point to as how PILOTs should work. Both Wilkes and King’s offer numerous community programs to residents, from an after-school program for economically disadvantaged children and a juvenile justice mentor program to free lectures and art gallery exhibits. Most of Wilkes-Barre’s largest tax-exempt nonprofits give PILOTs that are 12 to 43 percent of what their tax bills would be. Their tax bills were determ i n e d by u s i n g t h e i r assessed values as determined by the Luzerne County Assessor’s Office then multiplying it by WilkesBarre’s 141.33 property tax millage rate and a 9.2 percent common-level ratio factor to account for the city’s outdated assessments. Of the other two major nonprofit colleges in Luzerne County, Misericordia University contributes small PILOTs $4,500 to Dallas and $3,000 to Dallas Twp., and Luzerne County Community College pays nothing to the city of Nanticoke. Misericordia is also the largest contributor to the Back Mountain Regional Fire and EMS, and the school donated bulletproof vests to the municipal police departments, university spokesman Paul Krzywicki said.

Colleges purchasing properties Still, some city residents say Wilkes and King’s are not contributing enough. During a city council meeting last year, three residents objected when council authorized the administration to apply for a $500,000 state grant on behalf of King’s College to help fund the renovation of the recently purchased Spring Brook Water Co. building on North Franklin Street. Resident John Suchoski complained King’s was “taking (the structure) off the tax rolls, and we’re going to … help them get grant money to fix a building that we’re never going to see tax revenue from again.” Acknowledging while King’s and Wilkes contribute a combined $200,000 to the city annually, Suchoski suggested the city take a tougher stance when asking for more PILOT money from the colleges and use the colleges’ grant requests as bargaining chips. He said facilitating grants “emboldens” the schools “to keep buying up properties and taking them off the tax rolls” in a city that has a relatively stagnant property tax base and faces the possibility of multi-million dollar deficits in coming years. King’s bought at least 19 downtown properties since 2014, with a total assessed value of $5.7 million that year. In that same time period, Wilkes spent about $4 million to acquire at least 14 properties with a total assessed value of $2.03 million. The city lost about $111,745 in potential annual property tax revenue from the purchases.

Luzerne County tax-exempt properties, 2018 Number of all parcels Property type

Taxable parcels 157,999

Tax-exempt parcels 9,777

Assessed value of all parcels

Taxable parcels $20,311,450,400

Government Religious/cemeteries Non-government schools Hospitals/medical offices Public utilities/railroads Others

Number of Parcels 4,257 1,117 311 91 72 3,929

Assessed value of parcels Government $1,437,628,300 Religious/cemeteries $386,357,800 Non-government schools $234,880,000 Hospitals/medical offices $118,468,800 Public utilities/railroads $4,450,500 Others $398,451,200

% of all parcels 2.5% 0.7% 0.2% 0.1% 0.0% 2.3%

% of all parcels 6.3% 1.7% 1.0% 0.5% 0.0% 1.7%

% of tax-exempt parcels 43.5% 11.4% 3.2% 0.9% 0.7% 40.2%

% of tax-exempt parcels 55.7% 15.0% 9.1% 4.6% 0.2% 15.4%

Tax-exempt parcels $2,580,236,600 SOURCE: CITIZENS’ VOICE ANALYSIS OF LUZERNE COUNTY ASSESSOR’S OFFICE RECORDS

KEVIN O’NEILL / STAFF ARTIST

projects, including new sidewalks, relocating the art gallery to South Main Street so it’s more accessible to the community, and its Small Business Development Center that set a record last year for helping clients achieve the highest amount of loan money in its history, $18 million, that supports local businesses. Wilkes also hosts SHINE, which brings 500 of some of the poorest students in Luzerne County into an after-school program to help them academically, Leahy said. “In my opinion, the voluntary payment is the least of what we do to try to be supportive of the city of WilkesBarre, the county of Luzerne and even more broadly than that,” he said. The properties Wilkes acquires allow it to continue to be developed into a competitive, 21st century university, he said. The additional space is needed to teach more students, hire more faculty and grow the university, Leahy added.

struction of city buildings and infrastructure. We also spend millions of dollars each year within the city to operate and maintain our campus. These projects have created hundreds of construction and other jobs and tax base for the city.” Since 2015, King’s has paid $700,000 in fees to WilkesBarre for expansion projects, including King’s on the Square, the Spring Brook Engineering Center, the North Street church renovation, sidewalk and streetscape projects and the Allied Health Center, Loyack said. Those new projects will boost the student economic impact in the city from $12.5 million to over $15 million annually, he said. The new programs in engineering and health science will produce qualified candidates to fill local jobs that are in demand such as nurses, physician’s assistants, civil engineers and industrial engineers, and create dozens of new jobs in Wilkes-Barre, Leahy pointed out. Two of the three properties being redeveloped are properties that were historically tax-exempt or abandoned, so they represent no loss to the city’s tax base, he said. King’s has raised its PILOTs over the past three years, he said. Three years ago, its PILOT was $60,000. When King’s acquired the Ramada Hotel, which is now King’s on the Square, the college voluntarily increased its contribution to $72,500. “Last year, with these expansion projects in mind, the college … raised its annual contribution to $100,000 as part of a joint commitment with Wilkes University, committing $1 million over a fiveyear period to fund city services,” Loyack said. “This represents a 67 percent increase in a three-year period. No other not-for-profit entity has made such a commitment to the city of Wilkes-Barre.”

King’s drives economy

Push to boost PILOTs

PILOTs and Contributions in 2018 PILOTs are payments in lieu of taxes. Numbers reflect impact on the city government alone.

Wilkes-Barre Property Religious Groups and Buildings (157 parcels) Wilkes University Kings College Wilkes-Barre City Housing Authority Mercy/Geisinger Blue Cross & Blue Shield B’nai B’rith Washington Square Apartments Kirby Health Center St. John’s Apartments* V.O.A. Palmer House

Budgeted: $574,780 PILOT

Received: $579,233

Assessed value

Potential city tax

PILOT’s % of tax

$3,124

$85,093,600

$1,106,418

0.3%

$100,000 $100,000

$63,401,200 $48,851,200

$810,185 $635,181

12.3% 15.7%

$185,589

$61,871,400

$804,474

12.4%

$56,250

$35,578,300

$462,701

12.2%

$100,000

$17,030,200

$232,630

43%

$7,020

$5,657,200

$7,020

9.5%

$13,250

$5,604,000

$72,865

18.2%

$8,500 $1,560 $1,500

$2,032,100 $553,200 $463,100

$26,422 $7,193 $6,021

32.2% 21.7% 24.9%

$2,400 $100

$435,900 $0

$5,668 $0

42.3% N/A

$1,500

$1,294, 600

$16,833

8.9%

Domestic Violence Leadership Wilkes-Barre Commission on Economic Opportunity

City officials said this annual PILOT payment for 2018 has not yet been received.*

THE CITIZENS’ VOICE FILE

Patrick Leahy, Wilkes University’s outgoing president, believes the school’s acquisition and use of properties brings more benefit to the city than the taxes that would have been collected on them.

ty, said he thinks the college’s acquisition and use of properties brings far more benefit to the city than the taxes that would have been collected on them. “I think some people become too fixated on the school’s voluntary contribution to the city,” Leahy said, calling it just “one component of our community strategy.” Wilkes invests in the community, employs a large number of people and its stuWilkes needs dents spend money locally, he more space said. Patrick Leahy, outgoing “It’s my belief that all president of Wilkes Universi- those added features make

up for the fact that … we are a large property holder in the city,” he said. During Leahy’s seven years as president, Wilkes invested close to $100 million, beginning with the college’s physical plant, then its new science center, business school, communications center and engineering center. “All are important investments to keep Wilkes attractive to students so we can continue to grow our employment numbers and continue to bring students to the area,” Leahy said. He also pointed to the school’s many public works

KEVIN O’NEILL / STAFF ARTIST

John Loyack, King’s College chief financial officer and vice president of business affairs, said the school also contributes significantly to Wilkes-Barre’s financial health. “As King’s grows, so does the city,” he said. “King’s is an economic redevelopment engine within the city, investing over $35 million in recon-

Compared to Boston’s efforts, the city has a long way to go. In its first fiscal year, 2012, Boston received $19.5 million in PILOTs, a nearly 30 percent bump in the contributions. Last year, the city got $33,640,461 — a 72 percent increase over six years. H o w e v e r, G e o r g e expressed little interest in exploring a PILOT program similar to Boston’s. “Through discussions with the leaders of (nonprofit) organizations, the city has re c e ive d s i g n i f i c a n t ly increased PILOT contributions from the major taxexempt organizations in the city,” he said in an email. “Additionally, we have added contributions from smaller tax-exempt organizations through letters of request. We cannot mandate a percentage or any contribution for that matter, so we appreciate the community-focused relationships that we have formed with our PILOT contributors and will continue to work with them to ensure that the city’s PILOT program continues its success.” In Scranton, where there has been little success soliciting PILOTs, aside from the University of Scranton’s annual $200,000 contribution, city officials are trying something different — earmarking PILOTs to a specific program instead of just putting them into the general fund. “We recognize there’s no requirement that any nonprofit contribute to the city treasury,” Scranton city Business Administrator David Bulzoni said. “What we thought might create some interest is if we had a specific program in place where the party could see actual tangible results.” Nonprofit donations will help fund a new program called “Beautiful Blocks,” which are $1,000 matching grants for groups of five or more homeowners to make sidewalk and facade improvements in their city neighborhoods. If the homeowners pledge their own money, each block could get up to $5,000. The idea sprung from a similar program in Oswego, New York, which provides homeowners matching g r a n t s t o m a ke h o m e improvements, said Scranton Councilman Wayne Evans. Tax-exempt organizations would rather see their PILOTs go to a specific goal, he said. “It goes into the general fund … there’s generally a feeling the money gets wasted,” Evans said. Scranton City Council recently voted 3-0 to introduce a resolution to create the program. While Wilkes-Barre does not earmark PILOTs to fund programs like that, George said Scranton’s program is similar to a façade improvement grant program that was available to WilkesBarre residents who own property used as their primary residence on any one of 30 designated streets. The program offered a 50 percent match to homeowners, capped at $5,000, for things like painting, exterior woodwork, repairs or replacements to doors, upper windows and other exterior improvements. Another phase of the program is being developed, he said.

Wilkes-Barre officials made a concerted effort to boost PILOTs when Mayor Tony George took office in 2016, by mailing letters to 145 tax-exempt property owners soliciting contributions. In 2015, the city received $469,872 in PILOTs. By 2018, PILOTs increased 23 percent Contact the writer: to $579,233. All of the money smocarsky@citizensvoice.com goes to the city’s general fund. 570-821-2110, @MocarskyCV

Other findings: Number of tax-exempt properties climbing ■ The number of taxexempt properties both in Wilkes-Barre and Luzerne County increased over the last five years while the total assessed value of those properties decreased. Luzerne County’s 9,777 t a x - e xe m p t p ro p e r t i e s accounted for 5.8 percent of all county properties in 2018, and 11.3 percent of the total assessed property value in the county. T h e nu m b e r o f t a x DAVE SCHERBENCO / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER exempt properties in the Geisinger owns the most valuable non-taxed parcel in county increased by more than 1,000 from 2014, when Wilkes-Barre — Geisinger South Wilkes-Barre.

the Pennsylvania Auditor General that found the county and its municipalities and schools lost $59,684,511 in property taxes to nonprofits. H o w e v e r, t h e t o t a l assessed value of taxexempt properties in the county dropped about $19 million, or 0.7 percent, between 2014 and 2018. A similar anomaly occurred in Wilkes-Barre, where the number of taxexempt properties increased 3 percent, from 1,038 to 1,070 over the five-year span, and

the total assessed value of t a x - e xe m p t p ro p e r t i e s decreased by 1.1 percent or about $6 million. Luzerne County Assessor Tony Alu believes property tax appeals and the demolition of old, blighted structures account for a majority of the property value loss. In addition to nonprofits acquiring new properties, the subdivision of some properties is another possible reason for the increase in the number of tax-exempt parcels, Alu said.

■ Geisinger owns the most valuable non-taxed parcels in both Scranton and WilkesBarre. In Scranton, the most valuable non-taxed parcel is the Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine. The medical school’s total assessed value is nearly $16.6 million. If taxed, it potentially would generate nearly $4 million divided among the city, Lackawanna County and the Scranton School District. Please see fINdINGS, Page A7

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State Sen. John Yudichak, D-14, Plymouth Twp., opposed Senate Bill 4, citing the ‘potentially negative impact it had for local communities … to negotiate fair payment in lieu of taxes arrangements.’ State Sen. Lisa Baker, R-20, Lehman Twp., who supported SB 4, said disputes over tax-exempt status on nonprofits’ properties creep up during every economic downtown ‘as local governments and school districts look to fill budget gaps.’

Determining ‘not-for-profit’ designation can be difficult BY JOSEPH KOHUT AND STEVE MOCARSKY STaff WrITerS

A not-for-profit designation is generally not enough to qualify for a property tax exemption. Organizations challenged in the courts must show they are a “purely public charity” if they do not belong to a set of defined groups, like places of worship, and that the property that they want exempt is re gularly used for that institution’s purposes. What made up a “purely public charity” proved a sticky question for years. In Pennsylvania, a landmark 1985 state Supreme Court decision in Hospital Utilization Project v. Commonwealth set that standard. The decision lays out five criteria, known as the HUP test, that an organization must meet to qualify as a charity deserving of a property tax exemption under Pennsylvania’s Constitution: ■ Advance a charitable purpose. ■ Donates or renders gratuitously a substantial portion of its services. ■ Benefits a substantial and indefinite class of people who are legitimate subjects of charity. ■ Relieves the government of some of its burden. ■ The organization operates completely free from a private profit motive. Some critics groused. They said the standard was applied too inconsistently. In 1997, the Pennsylvania General Assembly passed a law, the Purely Public Charities Act, more commonly called Act 55, that sought to remedy that complaint. In it, lawmakers largely incorporated the HUP test but defined what constituted each criteria — legislative standards instead of case law.

‘If you have to get so complicated, if you are fighting with one of your trademark institutions and you’re fighting for square feet, it’s a signal there’s a problem with your tax system.’ GERALD CROSS

pennsylvania economy league executive director

Critics of the act said the l aw ’s s t a n d a r d s w e r e relaxed and made taxexempt status too easy to achieve. The judiciary reasserted itself in 2012. The state Supreme Court that year in a 4-3 decision affirmed a lower court ruling that denied a Pike County religious summer camp, Mesivtah Eitz Chaim of Bobov Inc., a property tax exemption by applying the stricter standards of HUP. The Commonwealth Court applied the HUP test and found that the occasional use of the camp’s recreational and dining facilities by Pike County residents did not prove that it relieved the local government of some of its burden. The camp’s attor neys argued that they were not bound by the HUP standard because the General Assembly passed Act 55, which took a more expansive view of “burden relieving.” So, it posed a question — which gets deference? The court rationalized that the state Constitution limits, rather than grants, legislative authority to exempt property from taxation.

That means that Act 55 still applies, but only if the applicant meets the HUP test first. The General Assembly tried to change the state Constitution. Senate Bill 4 of 2013-14 sought to authorize a constitutional amendment referendum be placed on a ballot to give the legislature power to establish the criteria needed to reach “purely public charity” status. Arguments on both sides largely echoed claims surrounding Act 55 in the late 1990s. The bill did not pass. So, the minimum an organization needs to meet to show it is a “purely public charity” is still the HUP test. Then, Act 55 must be satisfied. State Sen. Lisa Baker, who voted for SB 4, said disputes over what qualifies nonprofits’ properties for tax-exempt status “seem to arise after every economic downturn, as local governments and school districts look to fill budget gaps.” “One recession led to a court decision imposing the HUP test, which made it more difficult to qualify for tax exemption,” said Baker, R-20, Lehman Twp. “A second recession caused the nonprofit sector to appeal fo r l e g i s l at ive a c t i o n , because local taxing entities were a g g ressively going after nonprofits large and small.” A third recession is what led to the Pike County religious summer camp lawsuit, she said. Baker said she disagreed with the court’s ruling “and its implications for practical reasons.” Concerned that the court was legislating, she supported SB 4. State Sen. John Yudichak, D-14, Plymouth Twp., said his opposition to SB 4

“centered on the potentially negative impact it had for local communities, like Wilkes-Barre, to negotiate fair payment in lieu of taxes arrangements with local nonprofit organizations.” “Many of Pennsylvania’s third-class cities struggle with the erosion of their local tax base. Senate Bill 4 would have exacerbated the financial struggles of our cities and added an even greater tax burden on local taxpayers,” Yudichak said. Baker said the dispute between the legislative and judicial branches is the fallout from two much larger, ongoing problems in Pennsylvania. “The first is the unpopularity of an overreliance on property taxes for funding schools,” she said. “The second is one of municipal boundaries, in which cities and boroughs are limited in their ability to expand the tax base but must deal with a high concentration of taxexempt property due to the large institutions they are home to, some of which receive additional tax breaks to discourage relocation.” A Pennsylvania Economy League official agrees with Baker that there is an overreliance on property taxes, which is why many city officials are trying to boost their payments in lieu of taxes. “It’s a complicated issue,” said Gerald Cross, executive director of the PEL. “If you have to get so complicated, if you are fighting with one of your trademark institutions and you’re fighting for square feet, it’s a signal there’s a problem with your tax system.” Contact the writers: jkohut@timesshamrock.com 570-348-9100 ext. 5187 @jkohutTT smocarsky@citizensvoice.com 570-821-2110, @mocarskyCV.

FINDINGS: Hospital assessed at more than $26M from page a6

In Wilkes-Barre, the most valuable non-taxed property is Geisinger South Wilkes-Barre. Assessed at more than $26 million, the property potentially would generate a little less than $1 million in taxes if it were on the tax rolls. ■ Nearly 1,000 veterans in Lackawanna and Luzerne counties don’t pay property taxes. In Pennsylvania, honor-

ably discharged veterans who are 100 percent disabled can qualify for total exemption from property taxes — regardless of the home’s value — if they earn less than $92,595 this year. In Luzerne County, 595 veterans qualified last year while 348 veterans qualified in Lackawanna County. ■ There are 589 parcels in Lackawanna County under a broad, catch-all category of non-taxed property called

“other” on Lackawanna County tax assessment records. They account for 15 percent of all tax-exempt parcels in the county and their combined assessed value, approximately $29,934,850, is 9 percent of the county’s total non-taxed value. The “other” category includes organizations like the Salvation Ar my, St. Joseph’s Center, the YMCA and the Northeast Pennsylvania Center for Indepen-

dent Living. The most valuable piece of property in the category is the parking garage at the corner of Linden Street and North Washington Avenue owned by the Scranton Parking Authority — $1,873,050 in assessed value. The least valuable, with an actual figure attached, is the American Legion Post in Fell Twp. — $142. — STEVE MOCARSKY AND JOSEPH KOHUT

Police: Bus driver faces DUI, endangerment charges aSSoCIaTed preSS

BATH — An eastern Pennsylvania school bus driver is facing charges after police allege she drove under the influence of alcohol with 26 juveniles aboard, then abandoned them and the bus at a gas station.

State police in Bethlehem said 44-year-old Lori Ann Mankos of Walnutport is charged with child endangerment, driving under the influence, and careless and reckless driving. Police said Mankos was alleged to have been driving

erratically with 26 Northampton Area School District students aboard, then parked at a Sunoco station in Bath, handed the keys to an attendant and left. The bus and juveniles were left unattended until

school officials and township and state police arrived. Mankos was arrested at home. A listed number for Mankos wasn’t in service Saturday and it’s unclear whether she has an attorney.

The eye- (and ear-) popping IMAX documentary Apollo 11, about NASA’s 1969 mission to put men on the moon, reminds us of our shared sense of national purpose, one that director Todd Douglas Miller found very much alive while working on the film. Miller started out several years ago making what he thought would be a fairly conventional documentary about the famous mission, cobbling together whatever footage he could round up. Things changed, though, when folks at the National Archive made a remarkable discovery — reels and reels and reels of pristine 65 mm Hollywood-quality film (actually shot by Hollywood pros), most of it never seen, filmed as part of a proposed joint venture between NASA and MGM that, unlike Apollo 11, never really got off the ground. The moon mission geek community is pretty tight, so it wasn’t just Miller who was excited. Everybody was. There were all sorts of amateur collectors of video and audio who wanted to pitch in, giving Miller volumes of valuable material that he used to assemble the story of the launch and of the mission seen in Apollo 11, which opened Friday. This communal feeling intensified when word circulated that Miller and his team had developed a process to take the vintage film and convert it into high-resolution large-format digital video suitable for IMAX. Folks inside and outside NASA with access to their own film offered it for use.

“When people found out we could handle this kind of material in a professional and really reliable way, it was exciting for them. And it gave us access to material that really enhanced the narrative, especially stuff that was taken in and around the launch pad,” Miller said. The material (along with rare audio that NASA technicians held on to, and that hobbyists had collected) allowed Hill and company to create a real-time visual story of launch day that takes in the activity, astronauts, technicians, and the flood of tourists lining the Florida launch site. The immaculate large-format images bring impressive scale to the awesome size and power of the rocket, but a special poignance, too, to the shots of bystanders gathered to witness history. Hill is still amazed at the artistic sensibilities of those who shot the footage. “Imagine, with this massive rocket lifting off and heading into space, having the presence of mind to know how important it would be to turn around and record the human reaction to the event. That’s unbelievable to me,” he said. Also unbelievable — that men could physically do it. The large-format cameras were massive and cumbersome (one of the men who shot the footage came by his nickname, “the Bear,” quite honestly). “Imagine how lucky we are,” Miller said. “This is 50 years before Christopher Nolan was doing this. To be able to be a part of restoring this, to bring this to people in a format like IMAX, is really a privilege and an honor.”

Drivers make living ‘haulin Amish’ in Pa. BY JASON NARK The phIladelphIa InquIrer

PHILADELPHIA — Some people truck chickens down the road or move milk from state to state. Others lug freshcut lumber around. The Cisney family makes a living hauling Amish. “I already have a morning and afternoon run that day,” driver Lee Allan Cisney, 56, told an Amish man who called for a ride on a recent weekday afternoon. “I have to take a young couple to pick out a wedding gift.” Think of “haulin’ Amish” as a rural Uber, except trips are confirmed days or weeks ahead of time through landline telephones that sit in “phone shanties” shared by various Amish families, in the middle of fields. “It looks like an outhouse,” Cisney said. In 1975, an Amish man asked Carl Cisney, Lee Allan’s father, to drive him to a weld shop. The Amish traditionally eschew technology and many don’t drive. This man was a neighbor, so Cisney did him a favor. At the weld shop, other Amish men told Cisney, who’d been unemployed, that he could make a living driving the Amish to work, the supermarket, or anywhere else they needed to go. “That’s traditionally how most of this got started,” said Sarah Jane Cisney, Carl’s wife. “People doing other Amish favors.” With Amish childbirth rates very high, the Amish population increases steadily decade by decade. That means the Cisneys and other drivers have had plenty of business. In his career of four decades-plus, Carl Cisney, 78, said he made deep friendships with the Amish, often getting invited to weddings, where he and Sarah Jane, who also drove, were the only “English” guests. Some clients have wanted to bring

chickens and ducks inside for the ride. He’s always said no. Carl also insists Amish men take off their boots and put them in bags, particularly after a barn raising. One passenger Carl Cisney picked up in a snowstorm in 1978 was very pregnant, and then, quite suddenly, wasn’t pregnant anymore. That little girl, born in Cisney’s van, was named Sarah, after Sarah Jane, who came to help. Carl can’t stand the sight of blood. “I jumped out of the van and said ‘I’ll see you later,”’ he said. Despite his queasiness, Carl also once transported an Amish man to the hospital after he nailed his foot into a beam in a barn with an air hammer. The nail was so deep, he said. that the man’s coworkers cut the wood and it came to the hospital still attached. After another mishap, Carl was asked to drive two fingers, on ice in a shoe box, to a hospital after an Amish man had an accident at a pallet shop. He was too late. “I think they just threw them in the trash can,” he said, giggling. Favors are fine, carpooling too, but if a driver wants to transport Amish for a fee, there’s a permitting process handled by the Pennsylvania Utilities Commission. Drivers like the Cisneys and their son, Lee, are licensed paratransit drivers, with specific permitting to “transport people whose personal convictions prevent them owning or operating motor vehicles,” said PUC spokesman Nils HaganFrederiksen. Often, those drivers are referred to as “Amish Taxis,” and Lee Allan said they charge anywhere from 80 cents to $1.30 a mile. “It’s safe to say that for decades, there’s been demand for this type of transportation,” Hagan-Frederiksen said. “It’s an interesting carve-out that serves a need.”

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Meet george BroWN By STEVE MOCARSKy sTAff WriTer

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Just who is George Brown? By now, most Wilkes-Barre residents know he served a term on city council and likely will be the city’s next mayor, given that he bested incumbent Tony George in every voting ward of the city in the May primary and secured the Republican writein nomination as well. Seated on a folding chair at a table in his campaign office in Midtown Village, the retired businessman revealed some lesser-known details about his family and upbringing, business background, and personal and political influences during an interview ahead of Tuesday’s general election. Brown was born and raised in Wilkes-Barre, as was his wife, Marianne, a retired registered nurse. “My wife and I met each other (when) we were juniors in high

The citizens’ Voice has endorsed candidates for Luzerne county council, Luzerne county judicial retention and Wilkes-Barre city council. Page A11

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over,” Chris recalled. His favorite thing to do with his dad is just spend time with him at family gatherings. “Every Sunday, the whole family gets together. We talk about the week, joke around, have dinner. It started when I was a kid. My grandmother would have everyone over for Sunday dinner. After she passed away, my mom continued the tradition,” he said. Chris said four things come to mind when he’s asked to describe his father: “He’s hardworking, he’s honest, he’s a great father and a family man.” What impresses him most about his father is “his persistence and that he really cares about the city. The first time he ran (for mayor) and lost by like 150 votes, that wasn’t easy. Me, there’s no way I would have run again. But he did,” he said.

WASHINGTON — During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort pushed the idea that Ukraine, not Russia, was behind the hack of the Democratic National Committee’s servers, Manafort’s deputy told MANAFORT investigators during the special counsel’s Russia probe. The unsubstantiated theory, advanced by President Donald Trump even after he took office, would later help trigger the impeachment inquiry now consuming the White House. Notes from an FBI interview were released Saturday after a lawsuit by BuzzFeed News that led to public access to hundreds of pages of documents from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. The documents included summaries of interviews with other figures from the Mueller probe, including Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen. Infor mation related to Ukraine took on renewed interest after calls for impeachment based on efforts by the president and his administration to pressure Ukraine to investigate Democrat Joe Biden.

Please see BROwN, Page A5

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George Brown will likely be the next mayor of Wilkes-Barre.

The former city councilman will likely be the next mayor of W-B

school. She was the cheerleader and I tried to be the football player. We started dating when we were 16 years old and we’ve been together ever since,” said the soft-spoken 68-year-old. The high school sweethearts eventually married and raised two daughters and a son together in their South Wilkes-Barre home. They have four grandchildren.

A family guy Brown’s son, Chris, 39, said the most significant thing he learned from his father is “the importance of family. He was always there for us. Family was the most important thing for him and still is.” His father’s commitment to “always being there” is what he appreciates most about him. “The day I got married, I was taking a shower and all of a sudden, the shower head flies off. First thing I did was call my dad and he came flying

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From suicide and depression to human trafficking, the Family Service Association of Northeastern Pennsylvania has been focused on raising awareness of key issues facing local areas through the National Family Week Conference for a decade. “Each year we focus on a different topic that’s affecting our community,” said Amber Loomis, FSA advancement officer. This year through “Healthy Communities Through Healthy Families,”

‘What we really want to do is teach our attendees to understand the core issues and facilitate links between families and individuals in the community.’ AMBER LOOMIS

family service Association advancement officer

the FSA plans to zoom in on the social determinants of health. “The social determinants of health are really all the factors that come into play as you are being raised as a child,” Loomis said. “This can include growing up with

caretakers who struggle to provide, or living with some type of past trauma. “What we really want to do is teach our attendees to understand the core issues and facilitate links between families and individuals in the community.”

The conference is 8 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. Nov. 22 at Best Western Plus Genetti Hotel and Conference Center, 77 E. Market St., Wilkes-Barre. The National Family Week Conference features keynote speakers Teri Ooms, executive director of The Institute, and Susan Dreyfus, president and CEO of the Alliance for Strong Families and Communities. The speakers’ topics complement one another, according to Gertrude C. McGowan, Esq., CEO of the FSA. Please see HEALTH, Page A4

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BROWN: ‘He wants to be mayor because he really thinks he can help’ From page a1

“When I was growing up, he worked third shift for Thomson Consumer Electronics. He decided to go back to school when he was in his 40s. So he’d come home from work, get a few hours sleep and then go to school at King’s (College). From there, he went on for his master’s,” he said. “That’s when I realized how hard-working he was And he instilled that in me.”

Hardworking patriots Brown also described his own parents as hardworking people, his mother a licensed practical nurse and his father a factory worker. They lost their home and a business in the 1972 flood. They worked together as a family to restore the home. “It made us stronger as a family,” he said. Brown pointed to his father as the reason he sits on the board of directors of the Wyoming Valley Veterans Parade Committee. “My dad was a very good athlete in high school and he was actually offered a scholarship to play sports in college. He turned it down at 18 years of age and went in the Marine Corps and fought … the Japanese in the South Pacific. … My dad’s my hero,” Brown said. He wears a flag pin on his jacket lapel out of respect for veterans and for his father. Susan Allen, president of the parade committee, first met Brown about five years ago. “He helped us out and expressed an interest in being part of the committee, so we invited him to join us,” Allen said. “Now he’s one of the officers — vice president.” Allen said Brown’s knowledge, background and “connections, as far as knowing people in the area, has been very helpful.” “He’s organized, detail-oriented, and if something needs to be done, he makes sure it gets done. … He sees the big picture,” she said. “He knows who we need and he reaches out and brings people together. “He’s genuinely concerned about veterans and about the citizens of the community. What you see on commercials or at an event, he is not putting on an act. He is genuine. Someone might say, oh, he’s just being a politician. No, this is George.”

‘Above and beyond’ Allen said Brown is also “one of the biggest cheerleaders for Luzerne County Community College. He’s always spreading the news about programs the college offers.” Tom Leary, college president, said he got to know Brown when Luzerne County Council appointed him to the college board of trustees about three years ago. “He’s genuine, caring and committed to what he gets involved in. With him, others come first. And that’s a great attribute for someone who’s

ships with the unions. … So I’m definitely qualified to run a city with a $52 million budget,” Brown said.

going to be a leader,” Leary said. “He’s always open to other people’s ideas. I think he’ll be an excellent mayor.” “George has one of the most important qualities a leader can have — he really, genuinely cares about people, and I think it’ll be refreshing for them to know this about their mayor when he takes office,” Leary said. Leary said Brown regularly attends functions at the college, and he visited all seven of the college’s branch centers in four counties to learn more about them. “It doesn’t necessarily surprise me, but it does go well above and beyond what’s expected of someone who sits on a board,” Leary said.

Like a Dudley Do-Right Bruce Boock, who worked with Brown over the course of about 35 years, said he would have to agree. “I’ve known George I think since around ’78 when I started working at the RCA plant. He was a supervisor. We worked in the same department. I was third shift, he was second shift. I was like 27, he had like two years on me. He had a head full of hair and a Fu Manchu moustache,” Boock said of his now balding, white-haired, cleanshaven friend. Boock said Brown helped him find his foothold. “I was a young kid … and I was in charge of 40 union guys. He told me just take deep breaths. When you get a new job and somebody wants to help you and not stab you in the back, that’s a great thing. He really helped me with my career,” Boock said. They worked together for 20 years. After the Dunmore plant closed, Boock eventually followed Brown to First Quality. “I worked with him again, another 15 years.” Boock said Brown shows compassion and has a way of bringing people together. He recalled one especially hot day at First Quality, where temperatures regularly hit 90 degrees inside the plant. Brown drove them to Walmart, where they spent $300 on water, popsicles, ice and tubs to hold it all, and then distributed the tubs throughout the plant for employees. “Yeah, he used petty cash, not money out of his own pocket, but they talked about that forever,” Boock said. The only thing that ever sur prised Boock about Brown was when Brown told him he was running for mayor. “I said, ‘Why? You’re like a Dudley Do-Right. WilkesBarre is in a tough spot.’” Boock recalled. “It doesn’t pay enough and he wants to take a pay cut? I said, ‘You have enough money, you have everything you want. Why do this?’” “He was like, ‘I live here, my kids live here. I want to turn this place around and make it a better place to live. I want my kids to realize this is a nice place to live and to have more people come and live in Wilkes-Barre,’” Boock said. “He wants to be mayor because he really thinks he can help.”

Seeing things through

Brown also sits on the board of Circle Centre for the Arts, home of the Wyoming Valley Art League. Don Armstrong, president of the board, called Brown an “energetic, innovative individual who’s totally full of the City of Wilkes-Barre. THe CiTizeNS’ VoiCe FiLe He has every facet of city George Brown talks with supporters at crisnics irish pub in south Wilkes-Barre operations and people who during an election night party in may. can get things done in mind.” They met during Brown’s WHO IS GEORGE BROWN? run for mayor in 2015 at a resLEadErship roLEs: george Brown, 68, is running for mayor of taurant on Public Square. ■ president of the South Wilkes-Barre resthe City of Wilkes-Barre on the Democrat “I walked in and he was idents association and republican tickets. grabbing a bite to eat. I intro■ Vice president of the Wyoming Valley Education: duced myself and I said, ‘I’d Veterans parade Committee ■ Bachelor’s degree in human resources like to get an impression of with a minor in psychology from King’s Col- ■ member of the Wyoming Valley art what you want to do for the League Board of Directors lege city.’ It opened up a dialogue ■ member of the Luzerne County Commu■ master’s degree in organizational manand we’ve been friends ever nity College Board of Trustees agement with a specialization in human since,” Armstrong said. FamiLy: resources from misericordia University When a position opened ■ Wife, marianne Brown; children and ExpEriEncE: up on the art league board, their spouses, Chris and Shaelan Brown, ■ Worked at rCa Corp./general electric/ Armstrong invited Brown. Thomson Consumer electronics, eventually Heather and Jeff Hoppes and aimee and “He wanted to know what John Kearney; grandchildren, Sydney and becoming a plant superintendent we’re about before he made a ■ Worked as human resources director for mackenzie Kearney and Cole and Carson Brown. First Quality Nonwovens commitment to sit on the board. When George makes a commitment to do someONLINE EXTRA thing, he’s committed to be Watch a video of george Brown’s interview at citizensvoice.com. there and do it. That’s sometimes missing in our leaderCouncilman Bill Barrett, ing under him. ship these days, but it’s not go. Not George. It’s easy to “That’s where I learned a missing with George,” Arm- come to a meeting; anybody currently serving his fourth can do that. … Then they term, said he enjoyed work- lot of my management skills, strong said. working with people, makleave and you’re left holding ing with Brown. ‘Just a good guy’ “He was one who would ing sure people are treated the bag. George never did While Brown volunteers that. listen to all sides and take all fairly and making sure we his time with several com“Since the moment I met the information into consid- provided a quality product munity organizations, the him, he was sincere and eration. And if he wasn’t for our customers,” Brown one closest to his heart is the didn’t ask anybody to do comfortable with something, said. South Wilkes-Barre Resi- something he wasn’t going to he wouldn’t move ahead on From there, he went to the dents Association he started help with. He’s just a good it. I’m hoping those charac- former RCA TV manufactura little more than four years guy, and I‘m glad he’s going teristics carry on when he’s ing plant in Dunmore, which ago as a way to bring the to be my mayor.” General Electric acquired. the mayor,” Barrett said. community together. While Brown found satis- Thomson Consumer ElecPolitical influences The association has sponfaction in helping residents tronics later acquired GE. Brown’s first foray into through his service on coun- Brown was promoted to sored free outdoor movie nights and yard sales, but the politics was his successful cil, he thought he could do superintendent of off-shift projects that mean the most run for city council eight more for the city as mayor. operations, responsible for to Brown are the annual spe- years ago. Losing the mayoral race to 300 to 400 employees and 10 to Rick Cronauer, who served Tony George by 151 votes in 12 supervisors. cial needs Christmas brunch and special needs Easter egg on council before being elect- the 2015 primary election From there, he went to ed a magisterial district was hard, he said. hunt. First Quality Nonwovens Association member Pam judge, inspired him to throw “In my heart, I always had near Hazleton and was in Challenger said she met his hat in the ring. a passion for being the mayor charge of human resources, “He really helped the of Wilkes-Barre. So over the which included handling hirBrown about five years ago Contact the writer: when he visited her church neighborhoods and the peo- last four years, I saw what ing, benefits, compensation smocarsky@citizensvoice.com looking for a place to host ple who reached out to him, took place and I knew I could and healthcare. 570-821-2110, @mocarskyCV association meetings and and I wanted to do the same do a better job. I knew I could “In the time I was there, thing and try to do as good a make better decisions and we took that from a small activities. “I thought he was a very job as Rick did,” Brown said. better choices,” Brown said. start-up company to the larg- TRANSMISSION The late Lee Namey, a good guy. That’s why I joined PROBLEM? est non-woven manufactur(the association),” Challeng- neighbor of Brown and a for- A business background ing plant in the world,” From A Leak To A Rebuild! Brown started his career Brown said. er said. “He’s very sincere. mer Wilkes-Barre mayor and All Makes & Models He wants to help wherever councilman, also was an in finance at a loan compaForeign & Domestic He retired from there he can. He’s very interested influence and counseled him ny. He eventually switched about five years ago. Differential/Transfer Case in helping children and peo- in his campaign for council. from banking to production All Work Guaranteed “I learned a lot about run“He was the very first per- management, going to work ning a business, about work- Family Owned & Operated ple with special needs. He’s a For Over 48 Years son that helped me political- at the former RCA Corp. in ing with people, about the very kind man. “There are loads of people ly, that I looked up to, that Mountain Top in the semi- hiring processes and how to SHAWNEE who lay back and just let was a mentor to me, God rest conductor division, with hire good people, I learned a TRANSMISSIONS about 80 employees work- lot about building relation511 Market St., Kingston things happen or let things his soul,” Brown said.

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