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Plymouth man pleads guilty to deadly shooting

Their view: The world needs more funny (and disruptive) women

When reporter Jerry Lynott visited Murray Street last summer <a href="https://www.timesleader.com/news/708940/burned-out-property-in-wilkes-barre-a-mess-in-more-ways-than-one" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">it was a mess in more ways than one</a>.The house at 46 Murray St., damaged by a 2006 fire, was vacant and scarred. The house next door, at 48 Murray St., also stood empty. Both were located on a single parcel, according to county records.Their blighted existence was half the problem. Determining who owned the forlorn old single-family homes stood in the way of razing them and cleaning the lots.Tom Dombroski, a Back Mountain resident who owns a nearby property, said the decaying buildings were affecting his investment. He expressed frustration as a taxpayer who had paid $300,000 in taxes over the past dozen years compared to the more than $88,000 owed on the Murray Street property dating to 1995.Dombroski had addressed Wilkes-Barre city council and Luzerne County council, and even filed a civil complaint seeking $12,000 in lost income from Cadle Co. II, an Ohio company that reportedly owned the site.As Lynott reported at the time, Cadle representative Doug Harrah claimed they didn&#8217;t actually own the property, which he said was erroneously deeded to the company by Luzerne County&#8217;s tax claim bureau two years after Cadle bought a number of other properties in a 2009 tax sale.Harrah told Lynott he notified the bureau and an employee acknowledged it was done in error.&#8220;We didn&#8217;t accept the deed,&#8221; Harrah said.So Lynott went to county solicitor Romilda Crocamo, who checked into the dispute and said Northeast Revenue Services, which handles tax claims, maintains Cadle bought the property for $21,000.&#8220;The county&#8217;s not part of it,&#8221; Crocamo pointed out.Dyan Dinstel, an attorney for the tax claim bureau, said the property in question had Cadle&#8217;s bidder number on it.Interestingly, none of the other properties Cadle bought in 2009 owed back taxes, according to the tax claim bureau.So, dear reader, are you confused yet? You can understand, then, the frustration felt by Dombroski and Murray Street resident as the two houses rotted away, &#8220;inviting pests, squatters and stirring concerns that they might burn again,&#8221; as Lynott put it, while officials squabbled over who was responsible.<a href="https://www.timesleader.com/news/local/737432/murray-street-demolitions-remove-eyesores-in-wilkes-barre-neighborhood#/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Fast-forward to last </a><a href="https://www.timesleader.com/news/local/737432/murray-street-demolitions-remove-eyesores-in-wilkes-barre-neighborhood#/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Friday</a>.Neighbor Tara Yablonski stood on the sidewalk watching as a Caterpillar excavator crawled over the splintered wood of 48 Murray and tore into the house, reducing it to a heap of wood and rubble.&#8220;We&#8217;ve been fighting for it for years,&#8221; she said.Another old home, at 37 Murray, also is slated to come down this week.&#8220;This one&#8217;s worse next to me,&#8221; Yablonski said of that house. &#8220;The roof caved in. It stinks and is a mess.&#8221;Seems like a happy ending, right? Sort of.As part of Mayor Tony George&#8217;s effort to fight blight, the city bid out the job in January and awarded Brdaric Excavating of Luzerne a $31,267 contract to raze the three single-family houses. George noted Friday that 39 properties have been razed since he took office in 2016.Wilkes-Barre is hardly alone.Nearly 20,000 dwellings are vacant in the county, and an estimated 3,800 are considered blighted, members of the county&#8217;s relatively new Blighted Property Review Committee have said.That entity is working to compile a database of blighted properties, which would give the county&#8217;s Redevelopment Authority leeway to remediate problems, including acquisition, demolition and rehabilitation.That pertains to the county&#8217;s 72 boroughs and townships; the four cities &#8212; Wilkes-Barre, Hazleton, Nanticoke and Pittston &#8212; were not included in the program because they have their own redevelopment authorities.We applaud Wilkes-Barre and the committee for their efforts. They have much work ahead. &#8212; Times Leader

Our View: Murray Street demolitions highlight the cost of fighting blight