Woolrich, Inc. Gets Massive Cut in Real Estate Bill
LOCK HAVEN – Woolrich, Inc. has successfully appealed the value of some of its massive holdings in Pine Creek Township and taxpayers in the township, Clinton County and the Keystone Central School District are out tens of thousands of dollars this year and likely in the future.
Woolrich, struggling locally to the point it closed its woolen mill for good in December, had filed an assessment appeal with the county in 2017 to get its real estate tax liability reduced. This week brought word that Clinton County Court had signed off on a settlement order “reached by the parties,” Woolrich and the taxing bodies of the county, Pine Creek Township and the school district.
Word of the pending settlement had first come out publicly at last month’s school board meeting when it was learned the school district is out some $47,000 for lower valuations for the mill factory, the outlet store and a piece of vacant land. Based on information in the agreed-upon settlement, the total loss to all three taxing bodies is more than $74,000 for 2018.
The settlement court order signed by Judge Michael Salisbury directed that tax money for 2018, already paid by Woolrich, should be returned to the Woolrich legal firm that filed the appeal, Hoegen & Associates of Wilkes-Barre.
The agreed upon cuts in the assessed valuation ranged from approximately 50 percent to as much as 65 percent on one of the Woolrich holdings.
Signatories for the settlement were Francis Hoegen representing Woolrich, county solicitor Larry Coploff, Pine Creek Township solicitor Robert O’Connor Jr. and Keystone Central solicitor David Lindsay.
