April 14, 2015
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Kelly Rafuse
Direct cell: (570) 237-1866
[email protected]
jpeg images available on request
LOCAL LANDLORDS TO APPEAL WILKES-BARRE ONE-STRIKE CLOSURE, INVITE THE PRESS & PUBLIC TO HEARING
Thursday, April 16, 4:30 pm, 4th Floor Council Chambers at Wilkes-Barre City Hall
WILKES-BARRE – On Thursday afternoon, local rental real estate company GPGH Management will be appealing the closure of 110 Madison St., 2nd floor under Wilkes-Barre’s One Strike ordinance. They would like you to come to the hearing.
“I will be defending my small business, and offering some common-sense solutions to the ongoing crime problem in Wilkes-Barre that hopefully City Hall will take into consideration,” said Kelly Rafuse, who along with husband Steve Franco founded GPGH Management as Good People Good Homes in 2008. The company is responsible for over 50 units in the Valley. Several had been vacant and boarded up before the couple rehabbed them for use as rentals.
“I don’t agree with the One Strike ordinance at all,” Rafuse said, “but I sort of understand why Mayor Leighton enacted it. We don’t want drugs or guns in our apartments either. Drug dealers aren’t stupid – they recruit people who will pass a background check to get into a place. It seems like Wilkes-Barre should be working with us landlords, as the eyes and ears on the street, instead of lumping us in with the criminals. The police didn’t have to kick in the door, we would have opened it with our master key! To say we looked the other way for the sake of a $500 rent check is absurd.”
GPGH Management does not own the property on Madison St., but they manage it for an investor friend who lives in New Hampshire. “We treat it as one of our own,” Rafuse said.
That includes criminal background checks on all tenants. The two young men who lived at 110 Madison St., 2nd Floor, Damien and Isaac Lewis, had no violent crimes or drug arrests on their record. Both were employed and lived with their parents in Parsons. They moved in October 1st
“On February 12th our property manager, Illana Mishanski, got a call from the third floor tenant that a gun had gone off and the bullet went right up through her floor,” Rafuse said. Steve Franco was on the scene before the police left the building. “I was told by the Wilkes-Barre police on the scene that the gun had gone off accidentally. I specifically asked if a crime had been committed and they said no.” Still, Franco told the 2nd Floor tenants they’d have to leave. “That’s when the father got involved,” Franco said, “He told me no crime was committed here and they knew their rights. They agreed to move out quietly on March 31st if we did not file an eviction. We discussed this with the owner of the building, and he agreed. He didn’t want to risk a lawsuit.”
Three weeks later, on March 6th, the apartment was raided and shut down for six months under Wilkes-Barre’s One Strike ordinance. “We don’t know the circumstances surrounding the raid, because the police will not tell us anything. We have asked several times. They will not release the report, even to our attorney,” Rafuse said.
GPGH Management has retained the services of Philadelphia attorney John F. Bradley, who has been watching One Strike closely.
END
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W1078 Wyoming Avenue, Suite 196, Wyoming, PA 18644
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Kelly Rafuse
Direct cell: (570) 237-1866
[email protected]
jpeg images available on request
LOCAL LANDLORDS TO APPEAL WILKES-BARRE ONE-STRIKE CLOSURE, INVITE THE PRESS & PUBLIC TO HEARING
Thursday, April 16, 4:30 pm, 4th Floor Council Chambers at Wilkes-Barre City Hall
WILKES-BARRE – On Thursday afternoon, local rental real estate company GPGH Management will be appealing the closure of 110 Madison St., 2nd floor under Wilkes-Barre’s One Strike ordinance. They would like you to come to the hearing.
“I will be defending my small business, and offering some common-sense solutions to the ongoing crime problem in Wilkes-Barre that hopefully City Hall will take into consideration,” said Kelly Rafuse, who along with husband Steve Franco founded GPGH Management as Good People Good Homes in 2008. The company is responsible for over 50 units in the Valley. Several had been vacant and boarded up before the couple rehabbed them for use as rentals.
“I don’t agree with the One Strike ordinance at all,” Rafuse said, “but I sort of understand why Mayor Leighton enacted it. We don’t want drugs or guns in our apartments either. Drug dealers aren’t stupid – they recruit people who will pass a background check to get into a place. It seems like Wilkes-Barre should be working with us landlords, as the eyes and ears on the street, instead of lumping us in with the criminals. The police didn’t have to kick in the door, we would have opened it with our master key! To say we looked the other way for the sake of a $500 rent check is absurd.”
GPGH Management does not own the property on Madison St., but they manage it for an investor friend who lives in New Hampshire. “We treat it as one of our own,” Rafuse said.
That includes criminal background checks on all tenants. The two young men who lived at 110 Madison St., 2nd Floor, Damien and Isaac Lewis, had no violent crimes or drug arrests on their record. Both were employed and lived with their parents in Parsons. They moved in October 1st
“On February 12th our property manager, Illana Mishanski, got a call from the third floor tenant that a gun had gone off and the bullet went right up through her floor,” Rafuse said. Steve Franco was on the scene before the police left the building. “I was told by the Wilkes-Barre police on the scene that the gun had gone off accidentally. I specifically asked if a crime had been committed and they said no.” Still, Franco told the 2nd Floor tenants they’d have to leave. “That’s when the father got involved,” Franco said, “He told me no crime was committed here and they knew their rights. They agreed to move out quietly on March 31st if we did not file an eviction. We discussed this with the owner of the building, and he agreed. He didn’t want to risk a lawsuit.”
Three weeks later, on March 6th, the apartment was raided and shut down for six months under Wilkes-Barre’s One Strike ordinance. “We don’t know the circumstances surrounding the raid, because the police will not tell us anything. We have asked several times. They will not release the report, even to our attorney,” Rafuse said.
GPGH Management has retained the services of Philadelphia attorney John F. Bradley, who has been watching One Strike closely.
END
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W1078 Wyoming Avenue, Suite 196, Wyoming, PA 18644