News

June 27, 2009

Kingston, several property owners sue over levee maintenance fee

Suit: Fee singles out properties in floodplain, ignores higher-elevation properties generating storm runoff.

By Jennifer Learn-Andes jandes@timesleader.com
Luzerne County Reporter
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A lawsuit opposing Luzerne County’s controversial levee maintenance fee was filed Friday by Kingston and several property owners.

The county Flood Protection Authority adopted the fee in April on 15 for 300 properties in low-lying areas that were inundated by the Agnes flood in 1972.

Residential property owners will pay $46.85 per year for properties assessed under $100,000 and $93.70 for those over $100,000. The fee for commercial, industrial and tax-exempt properties will range from $225.48 to $676.44, depending on assessments.

County Solicitor Vito DeLuca has said the fee is permissible as long as it is levied on “direct beneficiaries.” He has said the fee would be more vulnerable to a court challenge if the county attempted to impose it on property owners who are outside the Agnes floodplain.

The lawsuit argues the opposite, saying the fee violates the Municipal Authorities Act by singling out properties in the Agnes floodplain and ignoring higher-elevation properties that generate storm water runoff.

The act says the authority has the ability to charge fees “in the area served by its facilities at reasonable and uniform rates.”

Runoff from the Back Mountain and other higher elevation properties must be channeled and pumped into the Susquehanna River by the levee system, the suit argues.

The suit asks a county judge to prohibit the authority from imposing the fee.

In addition to Kingston, the following property owners were named as plaintiffs in the suit: Joseph and Darlene Orzechowski; Paul Ochman; Joseph Ceklosky; and Peter and Ellen Ritteman.

DeLuca said Friday that he thoroughly researched the fee and believes the authority is on solid footing. The county would get into too many gray areas by straying outside the floodplain to broaden the definition of direct beneficiaries, he said.

“We had to have a logical scientific basis to show which properties received the benefit of the levee,” he said.

Authority members said the fee, which will generate an estimated $1.9 million, is needed because the county’s general fund can’t continue shouldering the expense of maintaining the levee and 13 pumping stations. Flood insurance premiums would skyrocket if the county fails to properly comply with the federal government’s strict levee maintenance requirements, they said.

Fee bills were supposed to be issued to impacted property owners by July.

The fee will also impact property owners in the municipalities protected by the levee including Exeter, West Wyoming, Wyoming, Wilkes-Barre, Hanover Township, Plymouth, Edwardsville, Swoyersville, Forty Fort, Pringle and Luzerne.

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