Commissioners approve payment in lieu of taxes
Butler County Commissioners approved an agreement for payment in lieu of real estate taxes with a senior housing complex in Slippery Rock.
Commissioners on Wednesday approved the four-year contract with Slippery Rock Presbyterian Senior Housing Inc. for its low-income, multifamily housing complex on Spruce Drive.
The agreement calls for the complex’s Oakmont-based owners to pay $13,550 per year through 2029 and the 2028-29 school year to the county, borough and Slippery Rock Area School District in lieu of taxes, and for the county to remove the property from the tax rolls during those years.
The $13,550 would be divided among the taxing bodies, with the district receiving $9,160 a year, the borough receiving $2,058 and the county receiving $2,332. The amount the facility agreed to pay is equal to about 32% of the property taxes it would otherwise have to pay, officials said.
County officials said execution of the agreement is contingent on approval by the borough and school district.
In an unrelated tax matter, the commissioners voted to file a lien against the Red Roof Inn in Cranberry Township for not paying the county’s 5% hotel bed tax for nearly a year.
The county began imposing a 5% tax on every occupied hotel room in the county in 2002.
In a letter to the commissioners, Treasurer Diane Marburger said her office has been trying to collect the tax since September last year, when ownership changed hands. The hotel is owned by Nora Hospitality LLC, which does business as the Red Roof Inn.
Marburger said in the letter her office talked to a person in the state of Indiana who is responsible for paying the tax, but got nowhere and the person eventually stopped answering her calls. Those events took place between January and March this year.
She said her office tried to conduct an audit in April and May, but it was called off because management didn’t cooperate and refused to produce needed documentation that was held at the hotel’s out-of-state headquarters, according to the letter.
In June and July, the hotel contact in Indiana made numerous promises to pay the taxes and late charges, but no payments were made, Marburger said.
The treasurer’s office contacted Nora Hospitality in September and was told the taxes would be paid. Messages left with the company have not been returned, according to the letter.
Commissioners also approved a $4,135 change order for the installation of 12 feet of concrete curb where a sidewalk was removed to make room for construction of a walkway at the multiuse field in Alameda Park.
The change order adds to the $10,486 contract the county approved with Holbein Inc. of Freeport for work on the field.
The commissioners tabled voting on a $51,750 change order for the pool project at the Alameda Waterpark.
Parks and Recreation Director Lance Welliver said the change order was sent to a project consultant in late May, but he didn’t receive it until earlier this month.
Commissioners said they want to know why they didn’t see the change order sooner.
The commissioners awarded a $643,000 contract to All State Technology of New Jersey in April to replaster the pool.
