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By JENNIFER LEARN jlearn@leader.net
Monday, January 24, 2000 Page: 3A
Township officials have gotten the final OK to demolish a Carverton Road
eyesore jammed to the rafters with garbage.
Court papers show the township worked out an agreement with the estate of
Mary Ann Kile on Dec. 31. Her decomposed body was found at 92 Carverton Road
among pets and rubbish during a heat wave in June 1998. Chickens also foraged
in the house.
Times Leader Eyesore Spotter Norm named the property public enemy No. 1 in
December because the house was so filled with garbage that a number of windows
bulged and trash hung out some windows.
In the agreement, both sides acknowledge the house is a public safety
hazard and will be razed by the township. Kile’s relatives may enter the
property at their own risk to retrieve any personal possessions during the
next 60 days.
Township Manager Jeff Box said the bid specifications are already drafted,
and he expects to bid out the project in the next few weeks. He plans to award
the bid by March so the demolition can begin by mid-March.
“My hope is that we can be in there on the 61st day cleaning up,” Box
said. “We’re moving as quickly as we can so we can be done before spring.”
The bid specifications say the rodents must be exterminated before the
building is demolished, Box said. The township plans to pay for the demolition
with funding from the Luzerne County Office of Community Development.
D’Anna Kile, Kile’s daughter, was upset that no township official told her
she had 60 days to go inside the property. Box said notification is up to
James T. Lesho, the attorney representing the Kile estate – not the township.
Lesho said he is in the process of notifying the heirs. After the property
is demolished, Lesho plans to seek court approval to sell the land. The income
could pay off some of the liens, amounting to tens of thousands of dollars,
against the property.
A single mother of three, Kile said she wants to go back inside to retrieve
a Lane hope chest filled with mementos, including things from her mother and
grandmother. Kile also wants to salvage furniture for her friend, Kimberly
Spak, whose Wilkes-Barre home was destroyed in a Jan. 15 blaze that killed her
11-year-old son.
Kile admits it won’t be easy to find her mementos. Finding her hope chest
“will be like finding a needle in a haystack,” she said.
Call Learn at 831-7333.