Closed and discontinued
Last month, we said we wouldn't feel confident that the detention center plan was truly dead until ICE withdrew its appeal before the Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board.
Today, ICE withdrew its appeal.
The filing is one sentence long:
Appellant U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”), pursuant to 25 Pa. Code § 1021.141(a)(1), hereby withdraws its appeal in the above-captioned matter and requests that the docket be marked closed and discontinued.
Also today, we found out that ICE sent letters to DEP indicating that the Tremont and Upper Bern properties will not be used as detention centers.
The Shapiro administration says the DEP orders stay in place for now. Penn Capital-Star has the full story.
ICE says that the 7,500-bed detention center is not coming to Tremont. This is great news for our community, for our emergency services, for our public safety, and for our water and our waterways.
About those PILTs
Ideally, the Tremont warehouse will be promptly sold back to the private sector and put back on the tax rolls for Tremont Township, Pine Grove Area School District, and Schuylkill County.
Even without the extreme infrastructure pressures of a 7,500-bed detention center, the township, school district, and county are missing out on nearly $1,000,000 in property tax revenue each year that the warehouse remains in the federal government's possession.
Remember, the former Big Lots warehouse made up 60% of Tremont Township's property tax revenue. Is Tremont Township expected to raise taxes to make up for that massive loss in revenue?
Is Pine Grove Area School District expected to lay off teachers to make up for the loss of over $500,000 each year?
For months, we were told that payments in lieu of taxes (PILTs) would make our taxing bodies whole. DHS verbally agreed to them back in March. But according to Penn Capital-Star, DHS isn't actually authorized to make these payments. Only Congress can fix that.
(Let it be known that we were suspicious when we heard about the verbal agreement back in March.)
What you can do
- Call our federal representatives and demand PILTs for our community.
U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser: (570) 871-6370
U.S. Sen. John Fetterman: (570) 820-4088
U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick: (570) 941-0930
Here's what you can say:
"I'm a Schuylkill County resident. The federal government took the Tremont warehouse off our tax rolls, and it won't be a detention center. I'm asking [Rep. Meuser / Sen. Fetterman / Sen. McCormick] to secure payments in lieu of taxes for Tremont Township, Pine Grove Area School District, and Schuylkill County until that building is paying taxes again." - Read and share the Mother Jones article about Schuylkill County
Mother Jones just published a long piece on Tremont: "How the threat of an ICE detention center galvanized a Trump-country coal town."
We're grateful to reporter Madison Pauly and photographer Hannah Yoon for telling our story. The article covers the warehouse but also the biosolids, the landfill, and the data centers our neighbors across Schuylkill County are still fighting.
(Fun fact: There's a Pennsylvania historical marker for the real Mother Jones right here in Schuylkill County.)
We'll keep an eye out for any signs that the warehouse is for sale or is being transferred to another federal agency, and we'll watch for the result of DHS's OIG investigation into the warehouse purchases. No matter what, we still need to be made whole for the lost tax revenue from this detention debacle.
Questions, comments, concerns? Email us: info@noskookdetention.com
