Waiting for an upturn in Wayne

DAVID HULSE
Posted 3/14/18

HONESDALE, PA — Planning director Craig Rickard’s annual department report fleshed out some of the financial issues that caught up with Wayne in this year’s budget. The county …

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Waiting for an upturn in Wayne

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HONESDALE, PA — Planning director Craig Rickard’s annual department report fleshed out some of the financial issues that caught up with Wayne in this year’s budget.

The county commissioners voted their first tax increase in five years with their approval of the 2018 budget last November. The reason: in his budget statement business manager John Haggarty reported that assessed property values have increased only $358,591 since 2013, while county operations costs have risen by a combined total of $2 million over the same period.

Rickard’s report provided evidence. Only 68 new lots were created last year, continuing slow growth that has persisted since 2012. In a longer view 2012 was the last growth year since a growth year in 2005. The comparison is more shocking when compared to an average of about 190 new lots in each of the first six years of the century.

Wayne population fell by 4% between 2010 and 2016 with the decrease greater in the more densely populated southern and middle townships. Northerly townships lost 3.4%. Wayne ranks 48th in terms of population density among the state’s 67 counties.

Half of Wayne’s 28 municipalities are zoned communities but un-zoned constitute about 60% of the county’s acreage. Asked if prospective residents might be looking for zoning protection, Rickard said some want un-zoned land. “With zoning you have enforcement issues that don’t go away and private communities have their own covenants enforced by property owners.

Senior planner Derek Williams said the county has studied comparative values of zoned and un-zoned properties. “We could analyze the comparative values,” he speculated.

Mapping appeared to show some decline in farm activity. Commissioner and dairyman Brian Smith said his examination of land cover mapping showed an apparent change of much former pasture land to pasture/brush. Rickard said forested land in the county had increased from 66% to 75%.

“The face of agriculture is changing,” Smith said. He said acreage in traditional crops is falling while “with craft breweries popping up everywhere,” there is a lot vacant land for barley and hops used in brewing.

Mapping also provided some positives; last year the department’s work included mapping the state’s prison system as part of the county’s successful effort to keep SCI Waymart and the prison’s 1,400 to 1,500 jobs,

Other mapping work in planning covered many concerns. In part, they included updating and improving GIS mapping to aid emergency services, the mapping of Wayne’s 407 major subdivisions, new aerial photography that aids tax mapping, mapping utility line/large parcel proximity, client travel distances mapping for employment/training programs for economic development, and maintaining and updating municipal road data bases.

The annual report is available online at the county website and Rickard said copies would go to county libraries, municipal governments as well as adjacent counties.

The commissioners also received PA Fish & Boat Commission (FBC) notice of the upcoming demolition of the dam at the former Hankins Pond. The commissioners tried to get the FBC to reconsider the demolition for the past three years. “We tried in past. We met with Rep. Fritz, but it didn’t seem to help with anything unless we were to take it. It’s a shame. It’s a nice dam,” Smith said.

honesdale, budget

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