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Luzerne County Commissioners Take Bold Step To Preserve The Huber Breaker
Wednesday, January 17, 2007, was a good day for those who want to preserve the Huber Breaker in Ashley as a symbol of the area’s past. It stands in ruin now, but action taken by the Luzerne County Commissioners at their January meeting will insure that it will be a part of the future.
The Commissioners passed a resolution that allows the county to take over the property, settle with its present owner and start the process of restoring it and using it as a community resource.
  
Two of the officials, Chairman Greg Skrepenak and Steve Urban, noted that their grandfathers had worked in the breaker when it was the main employer in the Ashley area. Commissioner Todd Vonderheid remembered looking out the window of his home in Hanover Township and seeing the huge building every day.
They noted that the Huber Breaker should be restored and preserved so that the backbreaking work of our ancestors can be appreciated by future generations.
Many people, said Urban, are ashamed of the coal history in northeastern Pennsylvania, but they shouldn’t be, and taking steps to put the breaker in safe hands is the first step toward remembering a glorious past in this area.
Now that the land is under county supervision, a number of steps must be taken before work can even begin. The board is optimistic that it will stand once again as a proud reminder of how the area supplied energy to the world in the early part of the century.
(A related article about the commissioners meeting can be found in the News and Notes section of the Windsor Park Theater.)
 
Luzerne County Acquires Historic Breaker
By KENT JACKSON
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WILKES-BARRE – A relic of anthracite mining in Ashley might undergo an incarnation into a museum and arts center now that Luzerne County commissioners decided to acquire it before it falls down.
The commissioners on Wednesday unanimously voted to take the 69-year-old Huber Breaker by eminent domain.
Commissioners, one of whom discovered his grandfather’s ties to the breaker, said they intervened to preserve a piece of Luzerne’s history.
“The action today ensures it won’t fall into disrepair or even worse, be demolished,” Commissioner Todd Vonderheid said.
Recently, the owner, Al Roman, of No. 1 Contracting, said he was preparing to dismantle the breaker.
Vonderheid said he didn’t want to hazard a guess at the price of obtaining the breaker and 26 acres visible from his boyhood home as it is to motorists today driving on Interstate 81 south of Wilkes-Barre.
Through the eminent domain procedure, the county and Roman will submit appraisals of the property, and a board of viewers will set a price. Either party can appeal the board’s price to court.
Then the county will seek a partner that can lend expertise to restoring and planning activities at the breaker.
Tony Mussari, who was chairman of the Huber Breaker Preservation Society until last month, complemented the commissioners for accomplishing what others have attempted to do for years.
“They are the only agency that has the resources and the power to do this,” Mussari said after the commissioners voted to take possession of the breaker.
Mussari thinks the Huber property can become a museum, a recreation center, a performing arts center and an educational center for all of Luzerne’s students.
“For artists, photographers, individuals interested in the forerunner of industrialization (the story) can be retold in a variety of venues – painting, film, dramatization. The possibilities for this are extraordinary,” he said.
The story of how coal mined and processed at breakers such as the Huber fueled the nation’s drive to industrialize is well known, said Commissioners’ Chairman Gregory Skrepenak, for whom the story is personal.
Rummaging through family papers, Skrepenak found the death certificate for his maternal grandfather, Martin Andrescavage. Andrescavage died of complications from an accident at the breaker before the little girl who became Skrepenak’s mother was old enough to know him.
“It’s important to remind people who paved the way,” Skrepenak said.
Commissioner Stephen Urban, who advocated saving the breaker the past eight years, said a group that raises funds for the proposed visitor’s center in White Haven can be a model for how volunteers can help restore the breaker.
“I believe the means are there,” Urban said. “The Huber Breaker Preservation Society ... can make it into a truly historical monument.”
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