Photos: WBP Logo, (top left) Williamsport Mayor Derek Slaughter (top right),
Peter Herdic Transportation Museum (bottom)
By Todd Bartley, TalkWilliamsport.com
News@TalkWilliamsport.com
As Mayor Slaughter continues to navigate the waters of multiple audits of the city finances, a public corruption criminal case being looked into by the Pennsylvania Attorney General and the day-to-day obligations of running a municipality; did he miss a critical sentence on a property deed when he allowed the Williamsport Bureau of Police to relocate to the former Peter Herdic Transportation Museum – he also falsely claimed to be instructed to close by PENNDOT?
According to property records which were publicly filed on June 3, 2008 4564-340 and obtainable by anyone at the Lycoming County Courthouse; the deed to the property the Peter Herdic Transportation Museum sits on states the following:
UNDER AND SUBJECT to the covenants and restrictions which shall run with the title to the land and form a part of the consideration thereafter. Said covenant is as follows:
The use of this property shall be used only for only a transportation museum, open space, recreational land from the boundary with E.V.B. LLC land westward to the extension of the western boundary line of the Thomas Taber Museum property.
From this extension line west, the use can be all of the foregoing, plus one-family dwellings and commercial from Third Avenue to Fifth Avenue.
The documents also note “Deed in lieu of condemnation” dated May 14, 2003.
On background, E.V.B. LLC which listed an address of The Park Home, 800 West Fourth Street, Williamsport, PA in 2008 previously showed ALLEN ERTEL, MANAGER was the previous owner of the property.
In 2003 a sale for $349,000 from E.V.B. LLC to the City of Williamsport was recorded in Lycoming County property records.
The Lycoming County Housing Authority sold the property again to the City of Williamsport in 2006.
On the same day in 2006 the City of Williamsport transferred the property to LCHA Finance for $1.
The City of Williamsport reacquired the Peter Herdic Museum and the 2.5 acres it sits on in 2008 for $1.
The deed was then further amended on July 24, 2008, and the last sentence from the 2003 deed noted above 6370-224, Covenants was removed.
From this extension line west, the use can be all of the foregoing, plus one-family dwellings and commercial from Third Avenue to Fifth Avenue.
On background regarding former Congressman Allen Ertel, obtained from open internet source Wikipedia:
Allen Edward Ertel (November 7, 1937 – November 19, 2015) was an American politician who served as a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives for Pennsylvania’s 17th congressional district from 1977 to 1983.
Allen Ertel was born in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. He graduated with an AB from Dartmouth College in 1958, an MS from the Thayer School of Engineering and MBA from the Tuck School of Business in 1959, and a LL.B. Yale Law School in 1965. He served in the United States Navy from 1959 to 1962.
He clerked for Chief Judge Caleb Wright of the Federal District Court of Delaware from 1965 to 1966, and was the Lycoming County district attorney from 1967 to 1977. He was a delegate to Democratic National Convention in 1972.
Ertel was elected in 1976 as a Democrat to the 95th, 96th, and 97th Congresses. He was not a candidate for reelection in 1982, but was an unsuccessful candidate for Governor of Pennsylvania. After his unsuccessful run for governor, he unsuccessfully sought the office of Pennsylvania Attorney General in 1984, before returning to the practice of law in Williamsport.
Ertel died on November 19, 2015 in Williamsport, Pennsylvania after suddenly collapsing, aged 78. He was survived by his wife Catherine and their two children.
If the former Peter Herdic Transportation Museum can only be used as a museum; how is the Williamsport Bureau of Police occupying the property?
Is Mayor Slaughter receiving ineffective counsel from the City Solicitors?
Current City Solicitor Norm Lubin is a signer on multiple property documents noted above in his capacity as Solicitor for the City of Williamsport.
This is an exclusive story on TalkWilliamsport.com.
