Sheriff's sale dashes Harrison woman's plan for bakery, cafe in Natrona

Linda Gromley has operated her home business, “Fifty Shades of Cake,” out of her kitchen in Harrison’s Natrona section for two years, baking everything from pies and cookies to bread and, of course, cakes.

She had hoped to grow beyond a home business by putting in a commercial kitchen and opening a storefront, expanding her bakery’s offerings and turning it into a cafe offering soups and sandwiches.

All she needed was a parking lot. She thought she had a way to get it, only to find her plans were dashed by a sheriff’s sale.

“I’ve always wanted to open a business in this town because we don’t have anything here,” Gromley said.

Gromley lives in half of a duplex along River Avenue. Her mother, Elizabeth Anderson, who died in January, lived in the other half. Gromley planned to use her mother’s side for the cafe.

Gromley said she took her plans to the township, where officials told her she would need off-street parking. She thought she could acquire the abandoned building next door, at 75 River Ave., through the county’s side yard program and then tear the dilapidated building down and use the lot for parking.

Through the side yard program, eligible applicants can acquire properties that border their primary residence when those properties are vacant, have at least three years of delinquent taxes, are less than a half-acre in size and are located in a participating municipality, which Harrison is.

Gromley said she started the process and for months believed everything was moving along properly until she was told the property was set to be sold at a sheriff’s sale.

“I was just floored,” she said. “I had no idea that any of this other stuff was happening.”

A question is which process was started first — Gromley’s application to the side yard program or the sheriff’s sale.

Gromley said she applied for the side yard program in September 2019.

Cassandra Collinge, assistant director at Allegheny County Economic Development, said the department checked for any pending legal actions after getting Gromley’s application and found nothing.

When it went to Harrison for consideration, Collinge said the township told the department there was a sheriff’s sale. She said it still wasn’t on the docket, but the department then got a copy of the filing where the property was listed.

Because of that, Collinge said, “We are not able to proceed with our process.”

According to the court record, Harrison initiated the sheriff’s sale in November, claiming it was owed about $1,730 in unpaid taxes from 2009 through 2018. A default judgment for about $3,800, including penalties, interests and costs, was issued in January.

However, at a township commissioners meeting in August, township Manager Rich Hill said the sheriff’s sale process actually had been started in February 2019, before Gromley started the side yard process.

The county should have known, Hill said.

“You were misled,” he told her.

Gromley said she learned that Henrietta O’Brien, owner of Green World Contracting, is interested in buying the property through the sheriff’s sale. Gromley said O’Brien told her she also wants to tear down the building and use the lot for parking.

O’Brien did not respond to request for comment and could not be reached Friday at her office, which is in a building on the other side of 75 River Ave.

Attorneys representing the township did not respond to requests for comment.

The sheriff’s sale is scheduled to begin livestreaming on the sheriff office’s Facebook page at 9 a.m. Tuesday.

According to the sheriff’s office, the opening price for 75 River Ave. will be almost $14,000.

Gromley said she can’t afford to pay that and then the $15,000 cost to tear down the building. Getting it through the side yard program was going to cost about $3,000, she said. There would be additional costs to redo her building.

Commissioner William Heasley isn’t sure what, if anything, the township can do at this point, including whether it could stop the sheriff’s sale so Gromley’s side yard application can resume.

Heasley said the township would be “excited” to have Gromley’s business in Natrona, and that using the lot at 75 River Ave. for parking would be better than having an abandoned building standing on it. Heasley said he didn’t know O’Brien’s plans for the property.

“Our primary goal is to get it back on the tax rolls,” he said.

Having worked in the restaurant industry since she was 15, Gromley said she has always wanted to have her own business.

“That’s really what I wanted to do. I didn’t want to work for someone else. I wanted to do my own,” she said. “I’m at the point in my life where I can do it, and someone throws a screwdriver in there and I have no idea why.”

Gromley isn’t sure what she’ll do now, including whether she’ll stay in her home.

“I was willing and able to put money into this community and give the people a place they could come and eat,” she said. “I know all these people. I know what they need and I know what they like.

“I just won’t have my business in this town. I’ll take my money elsewhere,” she said. “I’ve been saving for this my whole life.”