A Wilkes-Barre resident provided this recent photograph of debris piling up at a homeless encampment along the rail line in the city’s Parsons section.
Submitted photo
Redevelopment Authority mulls options for homeless encampment
Luzerne County Redevelopment Authority officials said Tuesday they are willing to work with representatives of Wilkes-Barre and government entities at all levels on the best response to a homeless encampment near the authority’s rail line.
The camp is along a section of track by the Cross Valley Expressway in the Parsons section of the city.
Authority Executive Director Margaret Thomas said she recently learned of the matter from city officials. The authority has a small staff and does not have its own railroad police, which means it must rely on city and state police to enforce no-trespassing laws, she said.
In response to a citizen inquiry at City Council’s June 11 meeting, City Administrator Charlie McCormick said the city owns a small parcel adjacent to the site, but the primary area of concern is on land owned by the county redevelopment authority and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.
The city has notified both the authority and the state, McCormick had said. The property owners can enforce trespassing, but they have not yet posted the required signs at the site for enforcement, he said.
Thomas said Tuesday that no-trespassing signs were posted at the site, but she does not know if they are still there because many of the authority’s installed signs have been stolen, noting they are popular with collectors.
The authority had empowered law enforcement years ago with the authority to police rail property in all municipalities it passes through, Thomas said, adding that she would not want to visit the site without law enforcement due to safety concerns.
A dumpster and cleanup were mentioned as possibilities, but Thomas said funding would have to be identified if those options fall on the authority.
Thomas read a lengthy statement that she prepared with authority administrative staffer Richard Rusnok that said there is “no easy and simple answer to this problem.”
“As a reasoned approach, the answer cannot be simply moving them out of an area to another location. That is just shifting the problem and the burden to a different neighborhood and community,” the statement said.
The homeless people are county residents, and homelessness is a “nationwide epidemic for which answers are constantly being explored,” it said.
Litigation settlement
Authority members met in closed-door executive session Tuesday to review the latest draft settlement agreement in litigation County Council filed over the authority’s rail line.
Authority Solicitor Peter P. O’Donnell said the authority board must publicly vote on acceptance of a settlement agreement once all parties have agreed on the document wording.
According to officials familiar with the proposed settlement terms, the agreement would ensure the rail property is sold through a public request-for-proposals and that the county will be involved in preparing that solicitation and have the right to accept and reject bids.
When the rail is sold, the county would recover its costs and the amount required to satisfy an outstanding $3.28 million mortgage it had provided to the authority, officials said.
The agreement is also expected to delineate how any remaining funds would be disbursed.
Reach Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or on Twitter @TLJenLearnAndes.
