Resident buys nearby easement for $119K
Boro auctioned land after several parties expressed an interest
BY JESSICA SMITH Staff Writer

MILLTOWN — A controversial strip of land turned into a boon for the town when it was auctioned off June 17.

While a few local residents felt certain that the highest bidder would be Pasquale Parascandolo, who owns a strip mall on nearby Ryders Lane, a resident opposed to his plans outbid him. Bidding started at $50,000, and Harkins Road resident Brian Gebauer topped it off at $119,000.

"Any money, at this time, that can come into the borough is certainly welcome, as long as it's done in the right way — and this deal was," Mayor Gloria Brad- ford said.

Bradford said the revenue represents about 2.5 cents on the tax rate, or an average of about $40 on the average home, and is money that the borough can use during these tight economic times that have brought a loss in state aid to the municipality.

The issues surrounding the easement, located behind the 7-Eleven store on Ryders Lane, began last summer. Nearby residents Gebauer and Alex Neno approached borough officials with complaints about a tree there that was creating an eyesore and a hazard. Amid the discussions, they also pointed out that the piece of property was littered and unsightly, and offered to maintain it if the borough chose to cede it to them.

Other nearby property owners did not want to see the borough vacate the easement to the residents, as such a move would preclude Leonard Road, a "paper road" that now dead-ends in two places, from ever being connected. That, in turn, would affect some nearby property owners' ability to see financial returns on portions of their land.

Parascandolo and his wife Tricia had tried to obtain the easement from the borough in 2005, but the Borough Council denied their request. With plans to build a 4,000- to 5,000-square-foot home on the property the couple owns behind their shopping center, Parascandolo had sought the easement in order to allow for a driveway from Leonard Road to Harkins Road.

While the Parascandolos stated that they had no intentions to build more than one home, Gebauer has said he found it suspect that they talked of purchasing adjacent land from other homeowners.

Holding to his initial claims, Parascandolo pointed out that now another builder could potentially buy up the land of adjacent homeowners and build on it, something he said he was not going to do. Instead, he has said, he planned to use the additional property to add to his yard.

Either way, he said, his property could still be built upon.

"We got a double-whammy here," Parascandolo said of the sale. "I was very happy to raise that kind of money. I was glad this year that the mayor and council raised $119,000 for this piece of nonbuildable property that came out of nowhere, to help the budget. I'm glad they didn't act on it last year."

Parascandolo said the small parcel was simply not worth it for him to bid that high for, so he stepped back and let Gebauer win it.

Gebauer could not be reached for comment for this story.