Hempfield wants action on former Westmoreland Glass plant
By Richard Gazarik
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, June 19, 2009
From a cinderblock building behind a Route 30 motel in North Huntingdon, Adam Marek operates a business enterprise that he says includes natural gas, coal, timber and the former Westmoreland Glass factory site in Hempfield Township.
But the door to the building is padlocked, and a cleaning woman at the Hiland Terrace Motel said she never has seen Marek, who is president of Beacon Pennsylvania Holdings.
Neither have Hempfield officials.
The township has issued a subpoena for Marek to force him to appear at a second public hearing June 24 to determine whether the former factory buildings should be declared a public hazard and demolished, said Solicitor Les Mlakar.
Marek did not appear at the first hearing in May.
If the site is declared a hazard, Marek will have 30 days to raze the dilapidated structures. If he doesn't, Mlakar said he will file legal action in Common Pleas Court to force Marek to comply.
"I want him there," Mlakar said, referring to the hearing.
If Marek still refuses to raze the buildings, Mlakar said he is not sure how the township will force him to do so.
"That's the $64,000 question," he said.
The former glass plant is located along the railroad tracks off Chambers Avenue Extension in Grapeville, which borders the city of Jeannette. The brick walls of the former factory are collapsing, revealing rusted steel beams. Two major fires in the 1990s further weakened the structure. Two large brick stacks also stand on the site.
Earlier this year, Marek told the township he plans to salvage and sell the brick and steel, then develop the site for new industry along with timber holdings he says he owns in West Virginia.
Township supervisors fear the property may be contaminated with asbestos and heavy metals from a century of glass production.
Marek lists the Hiland Terrace Motel as the address for a number of businesses that he has registered in Harrisburg. Calls to a company number go unanswered. The motel's Web site says rooms there can be rented for three hours for $25. It boasts "privacy assured" because of its "discreet location," even though it's just a few yards from heavily traveled Route 30.
Beacon Pennsylvania Holdings issued a news release in May saying it was entering into discussions to sell the company. On June 9, the company issued another release saying it was reviewing a report on asbestos at the site and planned to start work soon.
On Monday, Beacon announced that Marek has been replaced as CEO by Rick Blackburn of Renaissance Renovation & Development, the company Marek hired to demolish the site.
In an e-mail, Blackburn said Beacon is pulling out of Westmoreland County but will maintain a presence because of Westmoreland Glass.
"We found the government, particularly Hempfield Township, to be outright hostile to business ..." Blackburn wrote.
Beacon was formerly known as ITLV Intelective Communications Inc. of Penn Valley, Calif., according to corporate records. Marek was listed as president and chief operating officer of ITLV. A deed filed in Westmoreland County shows that Beacon purchased the Grapeville site from Rodrigo Calderon for $42,000 last fall.
At the township hearing in May, Blackburn testified that he had never met Marek in person and was not an officer of Renaissance. Mlakar said Renaissance is registered in Nevada and lists Blackburn as a principal. Renaissance has a telephone number in Pittsburgh, but Mlakar has not been able to locate an address.
"I don't want to say it's a scam," Mlakar said, "but it doesn't smell right."
He said he believes the change in management is an attempt to stall the hearing.
"It does seem to be what they're trying to do," Mlakar said.
Marek refuses to be interviewed. He did issue a statement via e-mail.
"At this time, Beacon Redevelopment Industrial Corp. is unable to provide you with any non-public information pertaining to the company," Marek wrote.
He declined to answer any questions about his background.
"Again, whether the article relates to me or the company I am agent for is not the issue," he said. "The underlying issue (sic) are federal securities laws that prohibit the company, or its agents, from releasing information to a single shareholder (or group of shareholders) in advance of that material being made public.
"Specifically, federal insider trading laws prohibit our shareholders from receiving information about the advanced release of news that could potentially affect our share price."
Beacon trades as an Over-the-Counter stock under the ticker symbol BCND. Its share price has ranged from .001 cent to .006 cent a share.
AI
