Published: February 23, 2008 11:45 pm            

Tax auction brings for nice windfall for Northern Cambria

EBENSBURG — With landowners bidding for their coal rights lost decades ago, the county’s last tax auction brought in 16 times what the previous one did, making a nice windfall for the Northern Cambria School District.

At the Feb. 15 auction when the county sold coal rights parcels that owed back taxes, competitive bidding brought in $112,900.

That stands in stark contrast to the December tax auction of coal rights, where one Somerset couple, David and Anne Jenkins of Garrett, bought 69 parcels for $100 apiece.

At the February auction, David Jenkins was the top bidder on 35 of the 96 coal rights that were up for grabs, and he paid $100 apiece for only a few.

Others were bid up to $3,000 and even $5,000.

Coal rights, and the chance for landowners to buy them back if they were leased to coal companies generations ago, have assumed a new importance because of coalbed-methane gas drilling.

Whoever owns the coal rights owns the gas, the courts have ruled, and surface owners want control over their own property.

David Jenkins has been buying coal rights that owe back taxes and marketing them to methane gas companies, with the landowners often caught off guard when a drilling rig shows up.

With 88 of the 96 coal rights auctioned by the county being located in the Northern Cambria School District, most of the back taxes will benefit the district.

Next, the county and local municipalities will take their share of owed back taxes, and the county commissioners are looking at a way to keep the rest.

“Our first tax obligation is to the school district, the municipality and the county,” President Commissioner P.J. Stevens said.

“But we’ve asked our solicitors to look into whether the rest of the funds can be applied to back taxes owed not on that same coal-rights parcel, but by the same company on another parcel,” he said.

Stevens also said that a database is being developed so that landowners will have an easier way of knowing whether the coal rights below the surface are up for grabs.

“The overlays of the maps of surface parcels over the mineral parcels is close to halfway being completed. Then the effort will be to develop a mineral data base, such that when a bid on a mineral parcel is received, landowners will be able to know if it’s going to tax auction,” he said.

No more auctions are scheduled at this time.

        

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.