Click here to subscribe today or Login.
WILKES-BARRE — A long vacant row house that’s an eyesore in the city owes nearly $45,000 in back taxes since 1995 and has been off the sale list of delinquent properties for years.
A computer code entry for the row house at 64 E. Bennett St. kept it off the sales listed by the Luzerne County, according to Northeast Revenue LLC.
Dyan Dinstel, associate counsel for Northeast Revenue, said the coding used in the software to generate sales’ lists was in place before the company’s contract to operate the county tax claim bureau started in 2009.
It could not be determined if the code was entered accidentally. The entry went undetected until the Times Leader contacted Northeast Revenue about the property earlier this month.
“There is no reason we would have noticed it unless someone brought our attention to the parcel,” Dinstel said in an email.
Past attempts to reach the owner, Joseph Lombardo Inc. of Broad Street, Pittston, were unsuccessful.
Dinstel said the property will be added to the judicial or free-and-clear tax sale scheduled for April 2017. Bids in the sale do not have to cover the past-due taxes and start at a minimum of the tax claim bureau’s costs.
As of Tuesday the delinquent taxes totalled:
• Luzerne County, $9186.
• Wilkes-Barre, $5,908.
• Wilkes-Barre Area School District, $27,199.
• Bureau costs, $2, 424.
A neighbor said the row house has been vacant since the late 1970s. Carol Macheska said it’s deteriorated since then and the backyard, overgrown with brush and trees, has become a dumping ground for trash. Macheska said she’s contacted city officials about it, but her concerns were not addressed.