By Marcia Moore
The Daily Item
SUNBURY — The owner of the former Knight-Celotex property has agreed to pay two years of back taxes, demolish abandoned buildings and clean the site by next May.
Northumberland County Chief Clerk Kymberley Best said under the agreement, Scrap Trade Inc., of Ohio, will have the 22-acre property at 1400 Susquehanna Ave. prepared for sale to Moran Industries, a Watsontown transportation company, within a year.
"They've agreed to a payment schedule to pay off $240,000 in back taxes and complete demolition and cleanup by May 2011," Best said of the deal, which will have the taxes paid in full by the end of October.
The main building and silos will remain, she said.
Scrap Trade purchased the former Knight-Celotex property earlier this year for $925,000 and is gutting the buildings and tearing them down.
Once it has removed the valuable scrap, the plans are to sell the property to Moran Industries.
Company President John Moran has confirmed his interest in redeveloping the site and creating 100 jobs, but is keeping the plans under wraps.
Agreeing to the payment schedule and cleanup were the county, board of assessment, Sunbury Municipal Authority and Moran.
Best said Shikellamy School District solicitor Jeffrey Apfelbaum objected to the deal and said he'll appeal it.
Apfelbaum did not return a call for comment Tuesday.
Best defended the deal.
"We could have ended up with a pig in a poke," she said.
n E-mail comments about this article to mmoore@dailyitem.com.
