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First Posted: 10/20/2014

Luzerne County officials are zeroing in on 407 acres of unused county-owned land in Butler Township that could be sold to generate sorely needed cash.

Council members recently learned the county has been renting some of the land to two family farms since the 1970s without written leases or competitive bidding.

Farmer Robert Kashubski said his father negotiated an arrangement with county officials in the 1970s to pay $618 annual for the right to farm an estimated 30 to 40 acres.

Dale Frederick, of Haz Wald Farms, inherited a similar verbal arrangement to pay $440, county Chief Solicitor C. David Pedri told council in an email. Frederick could not be reached for comment on the estimated size of the county land he’s farming.

The county parcel totals 530 acres, but the Keystone Job Corps Center leases 123 acres for a federally funded, residential education and vocation training program, according to a 50-year lease extension approved by commissioners in 2001.

This lease with the U.S. Department of Labor reduced the center’s annual rent from $140,000 to $12,000 in exchange for the federal government’s commitment to fund at least $15 million in building improvements.

The county operated the Kis-Lyn work camp for juvenile delinquents on the property from 1912 to 1965. According to a 1971 article, county officials opted to lease some parcels to farmers at a “nominal fee” because the land wasn’t needed by Keystone.

County Manager Robert Lawton said the administration will encourage council to publicly seek proposals from interested buyers for the non-Keystone portion, which likely would have to be carved out under a separate deed.

He’s pushing council to put money from land sales and other one-time receipts into a reserve needed to obtain a credit rating to refinance the county’s $368 million in outstanding debt or in a contingency to cover upcoming union contract awards.

The entire 530-acre tract is assessed at $13.5 million — $819,800 for the land and $12.7 million for the Keystone buildings.

Alert from citizen

Former 30-year Butler Township supervisor Ransom Young alerted county officials to the farm rentals, saying he was brainstorming ways county officials could generate more revenue after reading about the proposed 2015 budget calling for a 4-percent tax hike.

“It was something nobody seemed to know about, and I want to make sure the county gets its fair share,” Young said. “I want to help. It’s a very tough situation council members are in, and I wouldn’t want to be in their shoes.”

Young said both farmers leasing the land are “good stewards” and “good people.”

“They’ve added to the community. I’m not saying somebody did something wrong,” he said. “They’re making a living farming that land, and I’d hate for someone to pull the rug out under them.”

Councilman Jim Bobeck said he believes council has a responsibility to publicly advertise the property for sale or lease after providing sufficient notice to the current occupants.

“Inaction would show favoritism to the current occupants, which is not in the best interest of the county as a whole,” Bobeck said.

Pedri told council the county is required under the state landlord/tenant law to honor yearly payments, which means any action on the land could not be effective until March and April 2015, or a year after the farmers’ payments.

Both farmers expressed interest in buying or leasing the property because “they spent significant hours bettering these lands over the course of their use,” Pedri told council.

Kashubski said his family constructed waterways and diversion ditches on the county land they farmed to make it more productive.

Farmers also plan ahead, he said. He planted clover on the county land this year and planned to do so again next year because it “rejuvenates the soil” for future crops. He also rotates crops of grains, pumpkins and other items.

“You have to build the soil up. Then you have better crops and healthier crops,” he said.

His family has been farming in the Butler Township area since the late 1940s. The family owns 74.16 acres on North Beisels Roads, records show.

Kashubski believes the land should remain agricultural.

“I’m a farmer. I’m one-sided in my view. I’d like to acquire the county land, but it depends on the price,” he said.

Frederick owns 140 acres of agricultural land on Fredericks Street in Sugarloaf Township, property records show.

Prior scrutiny

Prior county officials had discussed a public sale of the Butler Township land at least twice in recent memory but never acted.

The issue came up in 1995 because some Hazleton area officials encouraged the county to sell the land for development to boost the tax base. The parcel is located near state Route 309 and Interstates 80 and 81.

“I don’t think it’s proper to land-bank and basically keep that land from the tax rolls,” then-Hazleton Area School Board President Thomas Marnell said at the time.

Township officials also pitched a plan to use the site for a municipal golf course and recreational area, raising concerns about the impact of a large development.

The three county commissioners at the time — Rose Tucker, Frank Crossin and Jim Phillips — said they wanted to sell the land as soon as possible but first wanted to study its potential as part of a review of hundreds of other county-owned parcels.

The issue resurfaced in 2007, when commissioners faced a year-end shortfall stemming partly from a budget that counted on $4.3 million in county land sales that weren’t materializing. County officials publicly cited selling the Butler Township acreage not used by Keystone as an option.

Instead, commissioners got a cash advance on some 2008 revenue and held off on paying millions of dollars in bills as they awaited the receipt of more borrowed funds. They promised to explore the Butler Township land sale again in 2008, but the matter fell off the radar.

Lawton said he is trying to identify other potentially valuable and somewhat hidden county holdings, but the process has been slowed by a myriad of names on deeds and the need for research to verify land isn’t associated with roads, bridges and other infrastructure.

The Butler Township property it under the ownership of “Industrial Home” with no mention of the county.