The Citizens’ Voice
WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — The Wilkes-Barre Township Fire Department faces a crisis over frozen state funding, but township officials will not let the volunteer company collapse.
That was the message from township Mayor Carl Kuren at Tuesday’s meeting of Wilkes-Barre Township Council.
“This is our fire department. We are not going to let it go down the tubes,” Kuren said.
His remarks came after a grim report from Larry Ace, the president of the township fire department’s relief association.
Ace told council that a recent audit report revealed the fire company never repaid a 10-year-old loan for $150,000 from a state fireman’s relief fund — and the department’s state funding is frozen until the loan is repaid.
“Until there is $150,000 back in the account ... the fire department will get no funding,” Ace said.
Council and fire company officials briefly discussed how a loan so old for such a large amount could have been left unaccounted for so long.
The loan — which used the fire department’s ladder truck as collateral and was to be repaid at $5,000 per year plus 3 percent interest — was taken out in 2005, when the department was run by a previous executive board and administration, Ace said. Those officers included former long-time fire Chief John Yuknavich, who is currently in federal prison after he pleaded guilty last year to embezzling funds from the fire department for his personal use.
When an all-new executive board took over running the fire department in January, it investigated the department’s finances and discovered the loan had not been repaid, according to Ace.
None of it had been repaid, he said.
As Kuren put it: “There wasn’t one penny paid back.”
Township officials noted there is a silver lining to the fire department’s seemingly dire financial situation: Once the loan is repaid, the fire company will receive retroactive state funding for the past five years, which will offset most or all of the funds used to repay the loan, township solicitor Bruce Phillips said.
But no one could explain how the missing loan money went unnoticed for years. Written records do not help much, officials said.
“There is no paper trail, no nothing,” Kuren said.
While every official who spoke at the meeting supported the township helping the fire department stay afloat financially, council took no action on the matter Tuesday and the mechanics are still being worked out, Kuren said.
In remarks after the meeting, the mayor made clear he and council members would hold the fire company accountable for any township money it received.
“If we give them the money we’re not just going to hand it to them,” he said.
One possibility is for the township to take over the fire department’s building and lease it back to the department. That will be among the agenda items at a special council meeting at 7 p.m. on Monday to discuss issues involving the fire department, Kuren said.
County and state officials are investigating the latest controversy in the fire company.
The audit that revealed the unpaid loan money was conducted by the state auditor general’s office, according to Ace.
A representative of that office took part in a meeting on Tuesday afternoon, along with Kuren, Ace and other fire department and township officials, Ace said.
A Luzerne County assistant district attorney also attended the meeting, county District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis confirmed.
She declined to comment on whether her office is investigating potential criminal charges.
“We did meet with the mayor to discuss some issues that came up,” she said.
In remarks after the meeting, Ace made clear how urgently the fire department needs help from the township to stay afloat, for now.
“If not for the township we would be belly-up and padlocked,” he said.
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