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COUNTY’S FLIP-FLOP PROPERTY DEAL STINGS TAXPAYERS
Times Leader, The (Wilkes Barre, PA) - Friday, May 18, 2001
Author: STEVEN A. MORELLI

WILKES-BARRE - A previous owner of Penn Place offered the building to Luzerne County for at least $600,000 less than the county eventually paid for it.

County commissioners twice rejected the offer from Allen E. Ertel before he sold the building to Robert Mericle for $1.8 million on Nov. 29, 1999, Ertel said. On Dec. 31, 1999, the county agreed to buy the building from Mericle for $2.48 million. It intends to move several courthouse offices there.

Ertel said he approached each of the commissioners - Tom Makowski, Frank Crossin and Joseph ``Red’’ Jones - at the time, but was told the county had no use for the building .

County Chief Clerk Jim Torbik said Thursday he was not aware of Ertel’s offer and would ask Makowski about it, but he did not get back to a reporter.

``I would have sold it to the county for less than I sold it to Mericle ,’’ said Ertel, a former U.S. congressman. ``They (the commissioners) said they didn’t need it.’’

But the county was interested in using the building for offices since Jan. 14, 1998, if not before. That was before Ertel owned it, and when the county signed an agreement promising the Northeast Pennsylvania Building and Construction Trades Council that union workers would be used to refurbish the building.