School board president owns bar near tax-exemption site
Published: July 3, 2009
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GILBRIDE Thomas J. Gilbride is president of the Scranton School Board.
The sole property granted a tax-break extension by the Scranton School Board is around the corner from a bar owned by the board's president.
The Parker House, owned by board President Tom Gilbride, is two-tenths of a mile - less than 300 feet through the woods - from the Green Ridge Health Care Center, where owner Michael Kelly has proposed building an assisted-living facility.
At a special meeting Saturday, the board voted 8-1 to approve tax-exempt status for the property, and turned down requests for six other properties approved by the county and city council. Mr. Gilbride voted in favor of the property's tax-break extension and did not publicly disclose his interest in the nearby establishment.
One school director is questioning why the nursing home vote was the only property six directors voted for. Other directors say Mr. Gilbride's bar would receive no benefit from the land around the corner being developed.
Mr. Gilbride purchased the Parker House at 12 E. Parker St. in January for $174,000, under the entity JNTJG LLC, according to property records. The health care center is at 2741 Boulevard Ave.
JNTJG LLC was created in November, and Mr. Gilbride is listed as the company's president in Department of State records.
Among developers who had their projects' Keystone Opportunity Zone statuses denied by the board were the Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce's Mount Pleasant Corporate Center, Ice Box developer Bob Burke and Donald Rinaldi of the "Renaissance at 500" project on Lackawanna Avenue. Since Saturday's vote, city council members and chamber President Austin Burke have spoken harshly about the board's actions.
Director Kathleen McGuigan said she is not alleging any wrongdoing with the board's lone KOZ approval, but is asking for the reasoning behind the vote. Mrs. McGuigan was one of two board members to vote for the corporate center's KOZ extension.
Mr. Gilbride, who said his bar being in the neighborhood was the "least of my concerns," said he was at first against the KOZ for the property.
After Mr. Kelly told the board about a need for assisted-living care in the area and came forward with a plan, Mr. Gilbride did his own research on the subject and changed his mind, he said.
Director Brian Jeffers said no one on the board asked him to vote for the nursing home KOZ.
"It's a nursing home, period," Mr. Jeffers said. "That's the only one I thought was worthwhile."
Director Paul O'Malley said Mr. Kelly's nursing home has proven the benefit he can make to the community, from good-paying jobs with health insurance, to cleaning up the land.
"The land is some of the worst-scarred land in Lackawanna County," Mr. O'Malley said.
Director Chris Phillips said he looked at each of the properties up for a vote and believed the nursing home benefits the community more than the others projects.
Director Todd Hartman, the lone dissenter for all KOZ properties, said he did not have a problem with Mr. Gilbride owning the nearby bar "as long as (the KOZ) doesn't have anything to do with his property."
Contact the writer: shofius@timesshamrock.com
14 posted comments
no connection-a. burke/scartilli/gilbride - doherty, not-irish, nothing to be gained.
Don't say the Green Ridge Center is helping the old people.... it's a FOR PROFIT nursing home. It appears someone may be "sharing" those profits.
What's next?, council woman owns home adjacent to untaxed city land? (Failing of course to say that land is Marywood!)