Sell or save?
Luzerne County Council members are again pondering this question regarding the county’s former juvenile detention center as they face a bill of $100,000 to $180,000 to remove asbestos and other hazardous material and seal up the structure.
This expense is planned because a council majority had rejected local businessman Jim Casey’s offer in October to buy the building off River Street in Wilkes-Barre for $20,000 to create a long-term residential program for recovering female addicts.
Councilman Rick Williams, who was among the five out of 11 supporting the sale, brought up the subject at this week’s council meeting, suggesting the county hold off on the hazardous material removal and seek an appraisal.
Four council members who had opposed the sale — Harry Haas, Jane Walsh Waitkus, Kathy Dobash and Stephen A. Urban — had said in October they could not gauge if the $20,000 offered by Casey was reasonable because the county did not complete an appraisal. Eileen Sorokas and Edward Brominski also voted against the sale.
Depending on the amount, an appraised value may prompt at least one of these council members to reconsider and support a sale, Williams said.
County Manager C. David Pedri estimated a commercial appraisal would cost up to $5,000 and said he will proceed with the expense if the council authorizes it. He told council members he wants a directive on the appraisal because the past sale was rejected, and he does not want to “throw good money after bad” if they are determined to keep the property.
Williams said Thursday he has asked Pedri to obtain price quotes to perform an appraisal and present them at the Feb. 28 council meeting.
A sale to Casey would return the property to the tax rolls and “provide another resource to the opioid crisis that’s affecting our community,” Williams told his colleagues.
Casey said Thursday he was asked to pursue other projects since the county rejected his purchase, but he is still interested in the detention center, even though his last experience dealing with some county officials was “not pleasant” and wasted his time and energy.
He operates the state-licensed, 50-bed James A. Casey House for recovering male addicts next to the federal courthouse on South Main Street in Wilkes-Barre. The current addiction treatment programs are “not even scratching the surface” of meeting the demand, Casey said, noting there are “literally no services for women” who need a local residential transitional program following intensive treatment.
“I’m committed to the need to serve the under-served community,” he said. “If I can help at all, I will do whatever I can.”
Pedri said a fresh public advertisement seeking buyers would be necessary to ensure no other buyers are interested. Casey was the only prospective buyer to submit a purchase offer last year.
County staffers have boarded up windows and trimmed brush around the property to address Casey’s complaint the building was an eyesore on River Street and the prison’s concerns about people throwing rocks and balls — some packed with narcotics or tobacco – from the detention property atop a hill into the prison yard below, Pedri said.
Four companies submitted bids by Wednesday’s deadline to complete the hazardous material removal and make the structure “weathertight,” with prices ranging from $100,000 to $188,000, said county Administrative Services Division Head David Parsnik.
Bidders must honor their submissions for 60 days, the bid request said. The administration had expected the work to begin in April and take several months to complete.
The county had earmarked $560,000 in dwindling past-borrowed capital funds to remove asbestos and tear down the center.
Operational Services Division Head Edmund O’Neill told the council it could opt to proceed with a sale after investing in the hazardous material removal, with the hope the purchase price would exceed the cost of the environmental work. Buyers would be required to abate asbestos and other hazardous material before restoring or tearing down the structure, he said.
Williams said that would be a risk because private entities may be able to complete the hazardous material work at a lower cost on their own.
Councilman Eugene Kelleher also raised the possibility of hiring a local real estate firm to evaluate the center and all unused county properties and market them to prospective buyers in exchange for a sale commission.
The county administration has not identified any need for the center, which has been vacant since former judge Michael Conahan decided to stop sending juveniles there in 2002.
