LAWRENCE COUNTY Vote will initiate the seeking of professional real-estate help

Investigations of county funds by two auditing firms are almost done.
By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR NEW CASTLE BUREAU
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- Hill View Manor will be on the real-estate market soon.
Lawrence County commissioners expect to vote Tuesday to seek real-estate professionals to help them sell the county's defunct nursing home.
Commissioner Steve Craig said he did get a marketing proposal from real-estate agent Darryl Audia, but he would prefer that Audia follow the guidelines set by the county's request for proposals to be voted on Tuesday.
"I think he has a very competitive proposition, but I think it ought to be part of a process," Craig said.
Commissioners closed the nursing home earlier this year after the population started to dwindle because of a failed sale to private owners and the resulting bad publicity.
The nursing home sits on about 34 acres on Pa. Route 65 in Shenango Township and started as a poor farm in the 1920s.
Investigators near end
In other business, county officials say investigations by a forensic auditing firm and an accounting firm are nearing completion.
County Administrator/Chief Clerk Charleen Micco said a transfer of $49,000 from the commissioners' contingency fund would pay Packer Thomas and Maher Duessel.
Packer Thomas, a forensic auditing firm that has an office in New Castle, was called in to check records after the county closed the Tax Claim Bureau in March after learning that Tax Claim director Gary Felasco, who is also the elected county treasurer, had not paid real-estate taxes on his Cunningham Avenue home since 2000. The home was improperly marked "stayed" in the county computer system, allowing it to escape the yearly sale for nonpayment of taxes.
Maher Duessel of Pittsburgh completes a yearly audit of the county and learned earlier this year that the county had not repaid $1 million Felasco borrowed from the county's mental health mental retardation fund in late 2002 to help cover county general fund expenses.
Micco said she was told both firms are nearing an end to their work. Commissioners agreed to set up a meeting with both firms to determine their progress so far.
cioffi@vindy.com