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Jenkins Township officials are thinking about buying an island.
The real estate of interest — known as “Wintermoot” — is located north of the Eighth Street Bridge.
Residents have been complaining this island has become too overgrown and still contains a house or other large structure dumped there in record 2011 river flooding, said township Supervisor Stanley Rovinski.
It’s one of 10 islands in the Luzerne County stretch of the Susquehanna River that have documented owners and measured acreage for taxation purposes.
Government ownership of the island may free up more funding and other resources to address and prevent future concerns, Rovinski said.
“We’re trying to buy that property through flood protection so we can clean it out when the river is low,” Rovinski said. “I’ve had a lot of people come up to me and ask what we’re going to do about that structure.”
County Councilman Stephen A. Urban pointed out at a recent council meeting that the island was included in the county’s new hazard mitigation plan.
The plan, which lists projects the county and its municipalities should complete to reduce public safety threats, says the removal of “trailers” and sediment from upper islands in the Susquehanna should be a high priority project in Jenkins Township.
Regional cooperation would be needed for an acquisition of Wintermoot because the island also sits in parts of Exeter borough and a small portion of Pittston city. It is listed as 37.37 acres in assessment records but is believed to be larger due to new deposits that have clung to the island over the years, officials say.
Owned by friends
Pittston area resident Arthur D. Lori Jr. and two friends bought the island more than four decades ago from the Pennsylvania Coal Co. for $1,900.
Lori said last week nobody has contacted him to inquire about an island purchase or alert him to concerns about the structure and other debris.
While he’d consider allowing the government to access the property to conduct clean-up, Lori said he does not believe the structure is a safety threat or his responsibility.
“To me it’s not a hazard, and I didn’t put it there,” he said.
Lori said he does not clear brush or other deposits because the island was always kept wild. He visited the island last week for the first time in several years and said it continues to harbor wildlife. It contains a pond in the middle.
“It’s wonderful. It’s a pristine piece of property in the middle of the river. We don’t allow hunting on it, and there are deer and other animals there,” he said.
A sale of the island would depend on the offer, he said.
The three parcels making up the island are assessed at a combined $37,000, though taxes are based on a value of $12,600 because it is in the “Clean and Green” tax break program for properties over 10 acres that won’t be developed. Construction is not permitted on the river islands.
“We really don’t know what we’re going to do with the island. Everything is for sale at the right price,” he said.
Lori said he believes the structure that landed on the island is a house, but he did not examine it.
“I didn’t go that far when I was there. It’s a big island. The problem down there is it’s so overgrown with brush, it’s hard to see anything there,” he said.
Rovinski said he does not know if the township has any grounds to force the owners to clean up the island because it’s an undeveloped parcel.
“The islands are like woods, and you can’t tell a property owner to trim their woods or clean up their forest,” he said. “It may not pose a health hazard, but it’s an eyesore for everybody.”
Government resources could be used to clear brush and remove the structure, he said. A plan would be needed to access the island and haul away debris.
“Everybody agrees they’d like to get it cleaned up, but it’s never as easy as it looks,” Rovinski said.
Island sediment
The island sediment referenced in the county hazard mitigation plan would require a more involved level of planning and study, officials say.
Some flood-prone property owners and elected officials in riverfront areas not protected by the Wyoming Valley Levee have complained for years that sediment and new growth are making some of the islands larger, causing more water to back up into their communities when the river rises.
In 2012, Shickshinny resident and business owner Jim Bach held up a photograph of the island near the borough taken around 1900, when it had about a dozen trees and low elevation. He estimated the island now has about 1,300 trees and is 8 feet higher from sediment.
County Flood Protection Authority Executive Director Christoper Belleman, who oversees the levee, said a study would have to be completed to determine if clearing or removal of the islands would reduce the base flood elevation enough to warrant the expense of acquiring and completing work on the islands.
Belleman said he does not know if any governmental entity would be willing to fund such a study.
“It would require study of utility lines that are buried and may need to be relocated, ecological damage to aquatic life and vegetative species and where the sediment would be deposited,” Belleman said.
American Indians once camped on Wintermoot Island, which could mandate a study to determine if there are historic artifacts buried there, officials said.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers assesses many flood-reduction solutions, which could include a review of river islands , but the agency would require federal authorization and funding to get involved, an agency representative has said.
Belleman advised municipalities with structures or debris on river islands to research ordinances to determine if they can require island owners to take action.
“Ordinances about junk or hazardous material removal should still apply to islands, just like any other private property,” he said.
Belleman said the structure on Wintermoot has been there for four years.
“I think it’s time to remove it,” he said.
Former county chief engineer Joe Gibbons publicly reported in 2013 that he was trying to identify potential funding and labor to remove structures and other debris from the river islands and banks – much of it deposited in the 2011 flood.
Gibbons said at the time he was concerned some of the debris would damage the levee if it washed downstream in a future flood, but his plans for an island cleanup fell off the radar after he left county employment later that year for another career opportunity.
Nine of the 10 islands with known owners are in the hands of private individuals or corporations. The county owns Richard’s Island under the 109th Field Artillery (Carey Avenue) Bridge in Larksville and Plymouth through a 2005 package purchase of former watershed land.