“The county is not going to willfully take on more liability,” Pedri said. David Pedri said he agrees with Northeast Revenue’s recommendation. The repository already had inherited several unwanted catch basins, roads and scraps of land left by developers who stopped paying taxes after they sold their desirable inventory and wrapped up construction projects, Northeast Revenue representatives said.Ĭounty Manager C. Since taking over county tax claim oversight in 2010, Northeast Revenue Service LLC has advised against listing properties that could become a repository liability for the county. The county is semi-liable for repository properties, serving as legal trustee while the owners of record have abandoned them and stopped paying real estate taxes, officials have said. If nobody buys the cemetery - which is the expected outcome - it would get stuck in the repository, a pool of more than 950 properties that nobody wanted.It’s highly likely any sale would result in a similar situation, where the buyer is not willing or able to assume financial responsibility for the cemetery’s many needs, possibly leading to additional costly litigation.Normally, a property is listed for auction again if delinquent taxes date back more than two years, but county officials are making a rare exception of doing nothing. The property is still in their name and has racked up $27,969 in unpaid real estate taxes dating to 2010, records show. Such status is not automatic.Īttempts to reach Lee and Evstafieva through online phone listings and a law office that once represented them were unsuccessful. The county successfully maintained the statute of limitations to challenge a sale had run out and that the property was rightfully listed for sale because the former owner never obtained tax-exempt status. In 2012, or seven years after buying the property, Lee and Evstafieva went to court arguing the cemetery should have been tax-exempt as a burial ground and never listed for auction. Lawrence Lee and Viktoriia Evstafieva bought the 6.08-acre cemetery for $4,500 from a county back-tax auction in 2005 and lost their legal battle to nullify the purchase and obtain a refund. He cited his health problems as part of the reason for debris, overgrowth and a leaky mausoleum roof.
Both Westminster entities are defunct, according to published reports.ĭeminski told a Times Leader reporter in 2003, a year before his death, that money set aside in a perpetual care fund for the crypt and plot maintenance was gone, claiming someone forged his signature on a bank deposit slip to obtain the money.
took possession of the property in 1983 from Westminster Associates, also based in Laflin. Laflin-based Westminster Memorial Garden Inc. However, ownership of the cemetery was never officially recorded under Deminski or the church, property records show. “It’s horrible - horrible.”Īrea residents familiar with the situation say the cemetery’s significant decline started when Larry Deminski took charge.ĭeminski, who identified himself as a pastor of Unity Light of Christ Church in Pittston Township, said the cemetery had been donated to the church, according to county paperwork associated with his unsuccessful 2001 assessment appeal. “I don’t go there because I get sick to my stomach and cry all day,” Kumor said. Setting aside safety concerns, she can’t bear to visit them anymore.
Kumor said she doesn’t have thousands of dollars required to remove her parents, which would not include the cost of purchasing new burial spots with vaults and a headstone.
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