The PA Indedpendent, a public interest service project of the Commonwealth Foundation, is reporting that a nonprofit economic development group started by Senator David Argall was invovled in a property transaction that leaves more questions than answers.
TAMAQUA- A nonprofit, economic development group founded by state Sen. David Argall (R-Schuylkill) and funded primarily with tax dollars, purchased a downtown property for $196,000 last year and sold it to a recent board member of the organization eleven weeks later for $110,000.
The building and a vacant lot at 123-127 E. Broad Street was purchased by the Tamaqua Area Community Partners (TACP) from George Wenzel and Suzanne Krell for $196,000 on July 1 of last year and sold for $110,000 to TKT Miller Partners on Sept. 17.
Micah Gursky, once a senior member of Mr. Argall's Harrisburg staff and now Treasurer and senior principal of Tamaqua Area Community Partners (TACP), said that Todd Miller, a member of TKT Miller Partners, was not a board member of TACP. Mr. Miller was listed as a board member on TACP's federal income tax return for 2008, for the 2008-09 terms of office.
Mr. Gursky said Mr. Miller, a well known area businessman and real estate investor, left the board after his 2008 term.
Mr. Miller, along with his brother and father, is an owner of TKT Miller that owns seven of the nine property parcels in the 100 block of E. Broad St.
Shortly after the TACP purchase of the former bakery and lot, Mr. Gursky told the Tamaqua Times News the transaction was made possible by a $120,000 grant to TACP by the state Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED). The Times News reporter for that story was Joseph Plasko, who is also a member of the TACP board.
This story reminds SOP of the Beaver For Growth Initiative and Michael Veon. Those involved maintain everything in the transactions are legal. Once again they miss that taxpayers don't care if its legal, they care what happened to their money.
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