Charge against Masontown councilman dropped
A theft by deception charge filed against Masontown Councilman Joe Volansky was withdrawn Monday after an agreement between the two attorneys was reached and sidewalk repairs were completed. Volansky was charged five years after his company, Home Care Services, never completed sidewalk repairs Scottsdale Insurance Co. in Arizona paid him $11,109 to do. The sidewalk is located in front of a vacant lot at the corner of Main Street and Church Avenue in the borough.
Almost two months have passed since Magisterial District Judge Brenda K. Cavalcante granted continuance of Volansky’s preliminary hearing. At a July meeting scheduled as a preliminary hearing, an offense attorney witness – the insurance company adjuster – did not show, Cavalcante said. Cavalcante said Monday there was no plea agreement and there won’t be a trial in the case.
Masontown Police Officer Joe Ryan knew the charges were going to be withdrawn going into Cavalcante’s Main Street office. Ryan talked with the insurance adjuster, both men standing on the new concrete sidewalk Volansky hired Patterson Construction to lay, before the meeting.
Ryan said the two attorneys devised an agreement at the July meeting that if the work were done, the charges would be withdrawn.
Within the last week, a new sidewalk was laid, Ryan said.
Ryan, who gathered information from the insurance company and the borough to support his case, said Volansky was council president when the council voted to hire Home Care Services to perform the sidewalk repairs at a council meeting in January of 2000.
Ryan said he performed an investigation into the matter and brought it to the attention of the attorney general and then filed the appropriate charge.
Assistant District Attorney Jason Adams had no comment after the outcome of the case.
Volansky’s attorney, Joseph E. Ferens Jr., said there was no theft by deception to start with. Rather, Volansky was waiting for the fill dirt to settle so he could repair the sidewalk.
The fill dirt was placed in the lot shortly after June 15 of 2001, according to the criminal complaint.
Volansky’s business, Home Care Services, has since been dissolved and Volansky is employed in the mining industry, Ferens said.
Volansky said the matter was between him and the insurance company of the contractor who was hired to demolish a building on the property. Nitro Construction demolished the building, damaging the sidewalk, Volansky said. The property is now a vacant lot.
“The borough shouldn’t have been involved,” he said, “because William Mikolay owns the property.
“The contractor’s insurance company wanted to settle. It was a private contract paid for me to do those services. It had nothing to do with the borough,” he said.
He said an appropriate way to handle the concern would have been to address it at a council meeting, rather than filed a charge against him.
Volansky said the borough sent a letter to Mikolay, asking him to repair the sidewalks.
The borough received a letter in May of this year from Mikolay, asking why the work has yet to be completed, according to the criminal complaint filed in the case.
Mikolay did not attend the scheduled hearing. He was not available for comment Monday afternoon when contacted by phone.
Volansky said politics is at the center of the charge brought against him.
“It’s all about politics,” he said.
He said the case is an example of an attempt used by a group of people to force him to resign.
“They’re 2-0,” he said.
Volansky is facing criticism from the Fayette County branch of the NAACP after he allegedly made a racist comment after a council meeting earlier this year, and said ethics charges have been filed against him.
“People can see through this,” he said. “They can see I’m not the one making all the trouble they read about in the newspaper.”
Volansky claims that at the first scheduled preliminary hearing in July, he was presented with the option to resign from the council and the charge would be dropped.
He did not agree. He said Monday that he doesn’t back down from a fight.
Volansky said he has spent $20,000 in lawyer fees.