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<p>Plymouth Township property owner Ann Rish said she can&#8217;t participate in next year&#8217;s state gypsy moth spraying because she owns 1 acre and was billed $797.50.</p><p>&#8220;I will be forced to let the trees die because I can&#8217;t do it,&#8221; Rish said. &#8220;This is just outlandish. There is a terrible injustice here.&#8221;</p><p>Luzerne County staff engineer Keri Skvarla, who also is serving as the county&#8217;s gypsy moth coordinator, said many property owners are receiving bills higher than anticipated because the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources sets the spraying boundary lines and includes a 500-foot buffer around each residence.</p><p>As a result, property owners who applied for the program must pay for spraying of up to 23 acres &#8212; even if they own significantly less &#8212; if they want their land sprayed, Skvarla said.</p><p>Some of the buffer zones overlap because multiple adjoining property owners have signed up, Skvarla said. In these cases, the cost of spraying for the entire group was equally divided among the participants, even if some own more land than others, she said.</p><p><strong>State guidelines</strong></p><p>Skvarla stressed the county has limited involvement and must follow state program guidelines, including the requirement for property owners to pay for spraying by Nov. 15 if they want to be included.</p><p>&#8220;The county simply passes along information and passes the money between the property owners and the state,&#8221; Skvarla said.</p><p>Rish said her two sisters own parcels next to hers totaling 1 acre and 7 acres and were also each billed $797.50.</p><p>Skvarla said the total area that must be sprayed around them is 58 acres, for a total cost of $3,190 ($55 per acre) that was equally split among the three sisters and another property owner. The acreage owned by the fourth property owner was not immediately available.</p><p>A widow on a fixed income, Rish said she was expecting a bill around $55 for her acre.</p><p>She said she doesn&#8217;t believe her trees will survive because the property was &#8220;invaded horribly&#8221; by gypsy moths last year. She is inquiring about the possibility the state will include her property in spraying at adjacent Moon Lake Park, which is now state-owned.</p><p>A gypsy moth outbreak this spring prompted a public outcry for spraying. It was too late to spray this year because planning must begin the prior year.</p><p>State officials have attributed this year&#8217;s widespread defoliation to hot, dry weather that allowed the gypsy moths to flourish in the county. Healthy trees can usually survive one year of defoliation, but a second year in a row can be deadly, state officials say.</p><p><strong>Many complaints</strong></p><p>Skvarla said she has been bombarded with complaints about the billing.</p><p>&#8220;These are the state&#8217;s rules, not mine,&#8221; she said. &#8220;It doesn&#8217;t go by how much land you own. It goes by the total treatment area around your house.&#8221;</p><p>Bills were sent last week to 1,281 property owners for the state-approved spraying of a combined 21,150 acres, Skvarla said.</p><p>However, she expects that acreage to shrink.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve already had people who won&#8217;t pay, so the area likely to be sprayed will be much less,&#8221; Skvarla said.</p><p>If eight out of 10 property owners in a combined zone pay, the state may try to adjust the boundary lines to allow the spraying, she said. Refunds will be issued if a combined zone does not have enough participation, she said.</p><p>The bills inadvertently failed to include information about the payee. Checks and money orders should be payable to the &#8220;County of Luzerne&#8221; and mailed to the Luzerne County Engineering Office, 200 North River St., Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, 18711.</p><p>Skvarla said some callers have wrongly alleged the county is trying to make money through high billing.</p><p>&#8220;The county is not making any money. It&#8217;s costing the county money to do this program with my time and postage. We&#8217;re doing this to please the landowners,&#8221; Skvarla said.</p><style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Jennifer Learn-Andes</p><p>jandes@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or on Twitter @TLJenLearnAndes.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Luzerne County property owners complain about costly bills for 2016 gypsy moth spraying