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Residents without power in Wiencek mobile home park in Canton Township

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Katie Anderson/Observer-Reporter

Residents of a mobile home park in the 1700 block of Jefferson Avenue in Canton Township have been without power for two days because their landlord, Stanley Wiencek Jr., owes $50,000 on his West Penn Power account. Wiencek said the tenants haven’t paid him rent in years.

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Katie Anderson/Observer-Reporter

Residents of a mobile home park in the 1700 block of Jefferson Avenue in Canton Township have been without power for two days because their landlord, Stanley Wiencek Jr., owes $50,000 on his West Penn Power account. Wiencek, who also owns Wiencek’s Dairy Bar and Restaurant next door, said the tenants haven’t paid him rent in years.

For the second time since 2015, residents of a Canton Township mobile home park have had their power shut off due to nonpayment by the landlord, who owes West Penn Power $50,000.

The power went out for 73-year-old Willis Hartzog about 8 a.m. Thursday at the trailer where he lives in Weincek Park, in the 1700 block of Jefferson Avenue. He needs electricity for medical breathing treatments throughout the day.

“We’re still waiting for them to turn it back on,” Hartzog’s daughter, Elizabeth Gaito of Eighty Four, said Friday afternoon.

She took her father to the hospital for a breathing treatment yesterday, since the power was off. He was also using his car to provide power for the treatments, but it was draining the car battery.

“I don’t live here, but I stayed here last night so he wasn’t alone,” she said. “My father spent 25 years in this spot. He’s on a fixed income – Social Security – and he has custody of my 3-year-old nephew.”

Hartzog is one of three residents in the park. One of the other two is Jim McElhaney, a veteran in his 60s.

The electricity at the park is “sub-metered,” meaning that the landlord, Stanley C. Wiencek Jr., is the West Penn Power customer.

“This is like Groundhog Day with Mr. Wiencek,” said Todd Meyers, West Penn Power spokesman. “Last time we dealt with this was in 2015, and it was a problem before then.”

Meyers said Wiencek’s account balance in 2015 was about $23,000. The power was terminated at the park, though the tenants allegedly were making electric bill payments to Wiencek at the time. This week, the power was shut off again, because that balance reached $50,000.

“In between now and then, that number has ballooned,” Meyers said. “He’s only made less than a dozen payments over that time.”

Wiencek said Friday morning that he hasn’t paid the electric because the tenants don’t pay rent, which is supposed to be $225 per month plus electric dues.

“Nobody pays rent, but I’m still supposed to pay the utilities,” he said. “Nobody gives me money for the electric. I don’t take in any money over there to pay the electric. I should have them evicted. It’s my fault for not getting rid of them a while ago.”

Wiencek had told a reporter in 2015 that he planned to evict the five tenants he had then, shut down the park, sell the property and square things up with West Penn. He said Friday, four years later, that while the property is not yet on the market, he still plans to sell it and that he hasn’t taken on any new tenants.

“I’m in the process of trying to sell the property,” he said. “That would be my only recourse because they’re not going to pay rent.”

When asked Friday why he hadn’t evicted the three still living there, he said, “I guess I just keep putting it off. I feel bad for them – they don’t have anywhere else to go.”

McElhaney is the only one, Wiencek said, who’s “attempted” to give him money each month for rent, but McElhaney had fallen on “hard times” and was behind by more than a year’s worth of rent.

Gaito said her father doesn’t pay rent because he’s the “maintenance guy.” She said he cuts grass, shovels snow and maintains meter boxes on the property. Gaito said it was a deal Hartzog had made with Wiencek’s father, Stanley Sr., who had purchased the park in the early 1960s.

“He’s been doing it for 25 years now,” she said. “I don’t think Wiencek Jr. has the heart to walk over to my dad and say, ‘It’s time for you to go.'”

Wiencek said that while Hartzog does cut the grass on the property, “it’s not payment as rent.”

Wiencek said he has never kept official documents for rent or lease agreements with the tenants on the property, or documents on electric payment agreements.

“I just tell them what it is and they pay,” he said. “Before, a handshake would work.”

Gaito said tenants would walk next door to Wiencek’s Dairy Bar and Restaurant to make payments. The Dairy Bar was opened in 1953 by Stanley Wiencek Sr. Wiencek Jr. is still running it, and he said it’s doing well. He said the electric bill at the restaurant is paid.

Meyers said that for now, West Penn has a “work around” for the tenants to be able to get the power turned back on. He said they notified the tenants 10 days in advance of the shutoff and indicated that the tenants have the opportunity to pay the current bill – in this case about $178.

“The landlord can’t pay the current bill anymore because of his huge past-due balance and other fees that have built up,” Meyers said.

He said the tenants, or someone acting on their behalf, would have to provide West Penn with proof of residency and pay the current bill in order for the electric to be turned on again.

“They have this remedy, and they’ve used it before,” Meyers said.

That’s what Gaito said her father did Friday, though they were still waiting that afternoon to have power restored.

Meyers said this “remedy” isn’t supposed to be a years-long fix.

“I don’t know how long that arrangement can continue,” he said. “If it continues, they may need to find a different place to live. It really is something between the tenants and Mr. Wiencek. I feel for the tenants, but it’s not a good situation.”

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