Oct 23, 2011 By Joseph Stillwagon 4 min read

I am one of the Masontown Borough Council members who voted against forcing the Masontown Water & Sewage Authority to sell a piece of property to Shallenberger Construction Inc.

I have tried to remain quiet regarding this matter, as by law, this is a real estate matter of the borough and only to be discussed in Executive Session. However, I feel that since three members of council feel that they are allowed to use their political position and this newspaper to force the authority to sell this property, it is my duty as a councilman to at least give you some of the facts.

First of all, Mr. Shallenberger approached the Masontown Council and Water & Sewage Authority approximately 1-1/2 years ago wanting to lease this property. The property that Mr. Shallenberger wanted to lease was the prime part of this property. At the time that he proposed this deal to us it was for a 30-year lease for 17 acres at approximately $300 per acre. A few of us council members laughed at this offer even though two of the three council members who voted to force the authority to sell, wanted to accept this offer as they said this is a good deal for the residents of Masontown.

My comment to the council at this time was “maybe in the 1950s that would be considered a good deal, but not in 2010.”  After this meeting council did not hear from Mr. Shallenberger for a long period of time. However, he would occasionally see a few of these council members at public functions and have them come back to the council to solicit a bid.

During this time, Masontown Council decided to have the property appraised to see exactly what the value of this property would be. Well, the appraisal came back, and even with a few mistakes in the appraisal, the appraised value of this property came in at $650,000. The mistakes made in the appraisal would only make the value higher. All of a sudden, at one of our borough council meetings, about a month ago, one council person came to the council and said that Mr. Shallenberger has offered to pay us $500,000 for this property. Mind you at this time there was no written offer. This was a verbal offer. Now, I am not a rocket scientist by any means, but even I know that if I were going to sell property, and it was appraised at $650,000, there would be no way that I would let it go for $150,000 less than the appraised value.

This is what is happening in Masontown. The best part of this whole deal is that the property is owned and controlled by the Masontown Water & Sewage authority, which means that council has no right to sell this property or even be the middleman in this sale.

Meanwhile, these three council members are going to the newspaper and saying what a good deal this is for the residents of Masontown, but they are not giving you all of the facts. I really can’t understand why these three council members are vying for Mr. Shallenberger over the taxpayers and residents. As a council person I thought that we are supposed to be looking out for, and trying to do the best for, the taxpayers of Masontown. This kind of makes me wonder.

I feel that this newspaper has been a little biased in reporting this situation; however I do understand that it is only because the facts given to the reporter are given to her by those vying for Mr. Shallenberger, to force this sale. This being the case, I would only hope that the newspaper would dig a little harder into the facts instead of just taking people’s word because of who they are or what position they hold on council.

After all, there is definitely more to this property sale than what has been told or released to the media.

One more point of interest, if this is such a good deal for the residents of Masontown, why did Mr. Shallenberger continue to approach individual council members at public events?

Why didn’t Mr. Shallenberger continue to come to the council and water and sewage authority as a whole, regarding this sale?

Joseph Stillwagon is a member of Masontown Borough Council.