Pocono News Section

Centralia Residents Fight Eviction

Centralia Residents Fight Eviction - Monday, May 3, 2010 at 04:08AM EST

Reported by: Joe Holden
Monday May 03 2010
HARRISBURG, DAUPHIN COUNTY- The remaining residents of the Columbia County Borough of Centralia made an unsuccessful pitch before a court of appeals judge on Monday. Nine names appear on the suit. Four are dead. The other five say they want to be left alone and live in Centralia.

A Commonwealth Court judge blocked their efforts, recommending the Centralia hold-outs take up the issue with the Columbia County Court of Common Pleas.

A unrelated trial to settle claims for damages is scheduled for later this month.

Very briefly, attorneys for the Centralia hold-outs outside the courtroom touched on claims the state is conspiring to demolish their town in order to gain mineral rights to the anthracite coal worth in excess of a billion dollars. According to attorney Don Bailey, the fire, which he claims is all but extinguished, was used to chase people in turn to gain highly valued mineral rights.

Bailey pressed that federal action may soon be in the works to address as he called them "civil right" violations.

Documents obtained by Eyewitness News show borehole temperature readings measured at sites across Centralia have plummeted in recent years. Air quality readings also reveal nothing out of the ordinary according to the same documents provided by the plaintiffs. Attorneys compared the results to those in Lancaster, where no underground fire is burning.

Attorneys from Rosenn, Jenkins and Greenwald, representing interests of the Department of Economic and Community Development (DCED), refused comment after the court hearing.

Bailey claims staff attorneys at Rosenn, Jenkins and Greenwald have had "relationships" with the owner of Blaschak Coal Company. The company was recently permitted to establish its operations in the middle of the fire zone. Meanwhile, as Bailey pointed out, people are being forced to evacuate.

This debate has been on-going for at least three decades. A mine fire has been burning underneath the borough since 1962. The government has spent millions of dollars trying to put out the fire but decided to just let it burn itself out.