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Another WB officer faces discipline; mayor disagrees it was punishment

<p>Chet Mozloom would eagerly accept a donation of rare, hand-hewn chestnut barn beams to rebuild historic structures at The Lands at Hillside Farms.</p><p>Those beams exist in a barn in Dallas Township, which is slated to be torn down to make way for the Atlantic Sunrise pipeline. Williams Partners, which is building the pipeline and took control of the property where the barn is located through eminent domain, said it&#8217;s OK with the wood being donated to Hillside.</p><p>Meanwhile, the barn&#8217;s owner, Dale Wilkie, said he&#8217;d like to donate the wood, but can&#8217;t.</p><p>It&#8217;s a saga that has become increasingly complex as construction on the pipeline is expected to begin in the near future. The issue over the fate of Wilkie&#8217;s barn generated a petition, which as of Thursday had 1,910 signatures, urging Williams to either spare the structure or allow the wood to be donated to Hillside.</p><p>Williams spokesman Chris Stockton said the company has no problem with the wood being donated to Hillside, and the decision is up to Wilkie.</p><p>&#8220;The barn is his. The wood is his. It&#8217;s up to him to decide what he wants to do with it,&#8221; Stockton said.</p><p>Wilkie said he&#8217;d like to make the donation. But he argues he can&#8217;t because Williams&#8217; eminent domain claim means he doesn&#8217;t own the barn anymore.</p><p>&#8220;The courts have granted (Williams) the barn and the right-of-way. It&#8217;s their property,&#8221; Wilkie said. &#8220;I have not been compensated for anything and I can&#8217;t intervene in any way or I&#8217;ll be arrested.</p><p>&#8220;They can donate it. They can demolish it.&#8221;</p><p>Stockton said it isn&#8217;t correct that Williams owns the barn because of eminent domain and that point has been communicated to Wilkie and his attorneys. He also said if Wilkie donates the wood, it will have no impact on the compensation matter.</p><p>Dallas Township Supervisor Liz Martin said while she is supportive of the barn timbers being resalvaged, the municipality has no jurisdiction on the matter because it&#8217;s a federal issue.</p><p>Martin did say Williams needs to obtain a $50 demolition permit before it can remove the barn, and township zoning officer Carl Alber said the company has yet to submit an application.</p><p>The matter caught the attention of activist Scott Cannon of the Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition, who visited Wilkie and produced a video detailing the issue and the barn. Wilkie did agree to have the pipeline go through his barn as long as he was fairly compensated for the structure, Cannon said. A compensation hearing with Wilkie and Williams has yet to be scheduled.</p><p>&#8220;The donation of the wood should not be a problem. Hillside is a reputable and beneficial part of the community,&#8221; Cannon said. &#8220;Williams boasts how much money they spend on community grants. They need to put their money where their mouth is and make sure the wood gets donated.&#8221;</p><p><strong>&#8216;The dream&#8217;</strong></p><p>Mozloom, executive director of Hillside, said the Shavertown-area nonprofit would love to have the wood from Wilkie&#8217;s barn because it&#8217;s authentic to the period of the structures under repair by his group.</p><p>Specifically, Mozloom said a barn in the Springbrook section of the farm, that was built in 1815, has a collapsed roof that needs to be replaced. The wood in the barn was chestnut, which is extremely rare today after a blight wiped out American chestnut trees more than 100 years ago.</p><p>&#8220;There&#8217;s no possible way to make the barn we want to repair authentic except to re-use timbers from a Pennsylvania bank barn, and there it is (Wilkie&#8217;s barn),&#8221; Mozloom said. &#8220;The dream in the future is to repair everything at the Springbrook site, but we don&#8217;t have the wood to complete it.&#8221;</p><p>Williams is responsible for tearing down the barn and paying the cost associated with the work.</p><p>&#8220;We handle the removal and (Wilkie) tells us where he wants us to stack the wood,&#8221; Stockton said.</p><p>But Wilkie stood by his claim that Williams owns the barn and his hands are tied.</p><p>&#8220;The irony is I still have to pay taxes and liability on my property while they took it through eminent domain,&#8221; Wilkie said. &#8220;It&#8217;s their property.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">The Lands at Hillside Farms would like to use the chestnut beams from this barn in Dallas Township to repair historic farm structures. The barn&#8217;s owner, Dale Wilkie, said he can&#8217;t donate the wood because Williams Partners claimed the barn under eminent domain. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/web1_barn1.jpg</photo0><caption0>The Lands at Hillside Farms would like to use the chestnut beams from this barn in Dallas Township to repair historic farm structures. The barn&#8217;s owner, Dale Wilkie, said he can&#8217;t donate the wood because Williams Partners claimed the barn under eminent domain. </caption0><photoCredit0>Times Leader file photo </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/web1_barn3.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">This barn in Dallas Township is scheduled to be torn down to make way for the Atlantic Sunrise pipeline. Williams Partners said the wood can be salvaged and donated to Hillside Farms, but the barn&#8217;s owner claims he lost his right to do so after eminent domain was granted.  </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/web1_barn3.jpg</photo1><caption1>This barn in Dallas Township is scheduled to be torn down to make way for the Atlantic Sunrise pipeline. Williams Partners said the wood can be salvaged and donated to Hillside Farms, but the barn&#8217;s owner claims he lost his right to do so after eminent domain was granted.  </caption1><photoCredit1>Times Leader file photo </photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta></subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Tom Venesky</p><p>tvenesky@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Tom Venesky at 570-991-6395 or on Twitter @TomVenesky</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Donation of wood from Dallas Twp. barn to Hillside up in the air