Published: May 21, 2009 11:59 pm      

Club’s exemption challenged

EBENSBURG — Cambria County commissioners are challenging the tax-exempt status of a club that calls itself a civil defense headquarters, but some say is nothing more than a social club in the rural, northern part of the county.

Commissioners wrote Wednesday to supervisors in Susquehanna Township, where the club is located, and to the Northern Cambria School District, asking them to join the county in the challenge.

With or without that partnership, commissioners say they will bring the tax status of the property before the Board of Assessment Appeals for its review.

“We are asking you to join us in this action,” wrote president Commissioner P.J. Stevens.

The property at 813 Lion Road in Susquehanna Township was the subject of a news article in Sunday’s edition of The Tribune-Democrat.

For more than 50 years, the building has been known as a civil defense office, and for decades locals have called the organization “emergency police.”

It has been exempt from paying county, township and school taxes.

But a complaint that the self-described civil defense facility has evolved into a hunting, fishing and drinking club prompted an investigation.

It turns out that despite the sign identifying the clubhouse, wooded acreage and pond as a civil defense and emergency management facility, officials at Cambria County’s Department of Emergency Services are not even aware of the group.

Past and present county emergency officials said they didn’t know of the group, let alone its status, if any, for emergency policing.

Northern Cambria officials said the same thing, with a few recalling sporting events and Little League banquets there in their youth.

One person associated with the facility said it was a division of the county’s 911 agency. Officers did not return phone calls, and the group’s president, Joseph Vozar, hung up on a reporter.

A review of public records shows that 50 years ago the group did play a role in civil defense activities prevalent during the Cold War.

In 1960, a group identifying itself as “Northern Cambria Civilian Defense and Emergency Police” purchased the 62-acre property from the estate of Van S. Harvey for $3,500.

By 1963, the county commissioners granted the group a tax exemption. That status has not been challenged until now.

The group holds a current games of chance license.

In its May 2008 license application, it described itself as a “volunteer rescue squad.”

Administrators at Cambria County 911 say they have never heard of the group.

Stevens said he does not doubt that the group’s roots are based in the civil defense activities and drills of the 1960s, but he questions whether the tax exemption still should apply.

He said he merely wants to be certain that everyone is paying their fair share in taxes.

Stevens said he expects the township and school district to review the commissioners’ request before responding.