West Newton seeks meeting to resolve dispute on sale of historic John C. Plummer House

West Newton officials said Monday that they want to meet with state representatives and a community development organization that bought the historic John C. Plummer House in an attempt to resolve a dispute over the borough's 2011 sale of the house without state approval.

The state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources notified the borough in an April 16 letter that it has 60 days to resolve the matter of the borough's selling of the property to the Mon Valley Initiative of Homestead in August 2011 without state permission. A $1,250 state grant the borough used in 1968 to buy the building prohibits its sale without state approval and the building cannot be used for commercial purposes.

The borough has the options of reacquiring the historic building; repaying the grant plus about $17,000 in interest; or finding a historic structure in town with a value and size similar to the Plummer House on South Water Street.

“We don't want to (take it back). We have to,” Council President George Molovich said.

West Newton officials have said the borough cannot afford to repay the state's Project 70 grant plus interest. None of the officials suggested there was another historic property of equal value or size in the borough.

The borough received “inaccurate information” about any possible restrictions on the sale of the property, borough Solicitor Charles Wade said.

Ashley D. Rebert, chief of the land conservation and stewardship section of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, wrote that the state has sought a resolution to this matter in February, August and November 2013, as well as June 2014.

Patrick Shattuck, the Mon Valley Initiative senior real estate development director, said his organization has notified the state that it wants to meet, but a formal request for the meeting must come from the borough.

The Mon Valley Initiative has acknowledged that it must repay the state up to about $18,000 — the $1,250 grant plus 46 years' worth of interest estimated at almost $17,000 — in order to keep the building, Shattuck said when contacted prior to the meeting.

“We're hoping to work with the Department (of Conservation and Natural Resources) to satisfy the repayment request,” Shattuck said.

But the organization has invested a lot of money into the property — an estimated $30,000 — for new windows and facade and marketing the building.

“We would like to be made whole or we would want to retain ownership and have the restriction removed” by the state, Shattuck said.

The state's restrictions on the sale of the building were not discovered until the Mon Valley Initiative sought to sell the property to a private individual, borough secretary Pamela Humenik said.

Joe Napsha is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 724-836-5252 or jnapsha@tribweb.com.