According to my source, whose information has been reliable in the past, the newspaper no longer needs the large building, thanks to downsizing and the relocation of its printing operation to Staten Island. The building is over 50,000 sq ft on a 1.06-acre lot, and is reportedly worth $485,000, approximately half that was paid for the site in 2000.
My source informs me the newspaper is looking for about 7,000 sq ft of office space for its operations.
Is the rumor true?
"Sorry, I don't have any comment," states publisher Lou Stancampiano. Editor Jim Deegan declined to confirm the rumor as well.
Developer Mark Mulligan already owns many of Easton's prominent properties. This includes the National, Pomeroy, Alpha and Governor Wolf buildings, along with the Simon Silk Mill.
He also is partners in a burnt-out building on West Wilkes-Barre Street, which he owns with Easton RDA employee Mike Brett.
Mayor Sal Panto has called me an "agitator" for pointing to this obvious conflict of interest, which was hidden from the public through the creation of both a LP and LLC.
16 comments:
This will most likely be another NIZ purchase somehow. Between Lafayette, Northampton County, church property and NIZ's, Easton, should have about 8 properties paying taxes for the next 20 years. I would not want to be one of them. I still can't believe a town of approx. 26,000 has a government the size of Easton's. The budget, pension expense, and payroll is beyond my comprehension for a town of that size.
Obviously meaning Lafayette, Northampton County, churches and NIZ's are tax free.
Bill, with all the designations,it's hard to keep it straight. There is no NIZ in Easton. There are KOZs and TIFs.
Sorry, early onset dementia. I am 70.
I have no excuse for my own dementia. It comes naturally.
Mayor Panto has set the record straight on this issue. You and your fellow haters keep blowing smoke up each others asses because that is just what you do.
No one takes you seriously and that is becoming more and more of a fact.
You are an echo chamber of yourself your mancrushes and your old angry buddies.
Mayor Panto has done nothing more than trash me for embarrassing him by exposing a blatant conflict of interest. The Emperor has no clothes.
This is the first time in memory that Panto has jumped in a bunker and refused to explain his actions. He's always been out front and willing to mix it up to explain his side. His actions in this case indicate he's been caught red-handed and is guilty of the accusations made. He's embarrassed and is doing the only thing left to do when guilty. He's attacking the messenger. This situation is putrid and Sal knows it.
The name of the seller was? Survey sez! Not the city. Not the RDA. Convenient fact which you seem intent on failing to disclose.
7;56, An LP and a LLC was formed, with the LLC acting as General Partner for the LP. The whole point was to keep the public in the dark.
It is no surprise that the removal of the Express-Times physical operations from downtown should follow the much-earlier abandonment of any legitimate investigative reporting at the local level. They have failed to provide that resource for years (as has also the Morning Call). Without this requirement of a democracy: the oversight of a free press, it is just a matter of time before the political foxes rule the public hen-house so to speak.
Speaking of foxes in the hen-house, it is nothing less than true-to-form that Panto now has his online trolls out ridiculing anyone and everyone who criticizes him or his administration. This is S.O.P. in the Panto handbook. When I worked for the WWNP we had a Neighborhood Physical Quality Committee made up of neighborhood residents and business people who worked to improve issues of code enforcement, trash collection, park maintenance, street design, building integrity, etc. As we attempted to exert pressure on the various city departments to pay attention to West Ward issues Panto labeled these unpaid volunteers variously as " Dennis Lieb's cronies, Easton haters, negative, anti-city, anti-Panto troublemakers". I will not embarrass them by naming them here but you'd be surprised by whom he was so anxious to name call.
And if he wants to take me on over these accusations I have the emails and personal corroborations to prove it. I am not one of his "anonymous commenter" easy targets that he can dismiss whenever they ask a legitimate question or raise a reasonable concern. I will go toe-to-toe with anyone that questions the veracity or commitment of my neighborhood's active citizens.
Propaganda will not move Easton forward. Long range vision, not short term expediency is what is needed. Simply stating that something is "clean and safe" doesn't make it so and killing the messenger leaves you with a depopulated neighborhood where those that remain are the ones with no other choice. The right decision in the right place for the right reasons...No nitwits-no ideologues.
These are mantras that Panto and his RDA would be wise to abide by.
Dennis R. Lieb
If Sal knew his history he would recall a clutch of dissenters blogging with quill pen in hand, raising questions about the integrity and veracity of a different monarchy. Without which, the mayor may have found his occupation in our historical moment, as nothing more than a court jester with a pocket full of tricks entertaining a king - a vocation he is clearly qualified for.
Those who hold the public trust to the flame of truth are the gatekeepers of democracy. To those who trivialize these patriots with insults and stereotypes, wielding their power and influence to discard them, they are the very tyrants democracy protects against.
Pride comes before a fall and this pathological narcissist will fall hard.
Wow! Almost poetic.
"They [ET] have failed to provide that resource for years (as has also the Morning Call). Without this requirement of a democracy: the oversight of a free press, it is just a matter of time before the political foxes rule the public hen-house so to speak"
True. That is why bloggers like Bernie are absolutely invaluable. It's only the occasional victims of their investigations who turn into obsessed asswipes, who then try to obscure their work. More likely these disgraced and criminal twits are incapable of appreciating it, because they are narcissistic and focused only on spinning webs of lies and spouting fetid ass smoke to protect themselves.
you respect the first amendment. Remember we fought a war for that freedom.
LOL!!!
No worse than the Northampton county insider deal for the Bethlehem Twp building. You needed these guys to help make that happen. I guess they were OK doing that.
The King of the Hypocrites!
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