In 2012, the landmark, 100-year-old Jonas Hotel in Polk Township closed its doors for the last time, and two years later, the property was sold to an organization calling itself VALOR, which converted the hotel into some sort of halfway house for homeless veterans.
Before the hotel closed, the property was often admired for the magnificent old-growth evergreen and hardwood trees, some up to 80 feet tall, that surrounded the property. Many of those ancient trees were still in place and healthy at the time of the sale.
Since acquiring the property in 2014, the new owners have chopped down every single tree on the property. Today, the property is covered with piles of chopped-up firewood cut from those mature, healthy trees, and the grounds resemble a salvage yard rather than the stately landmark that once graced this scenic crossroads in the Poconos.
Just because a nonprofit organization with a self-aggrandizing name provides a service to the public does not give it the right to trash a century-old historic landmark belonging to the people of the commonwealth.
The township of Polk is also at fault for not doing more to preserve this iconic piece of local history and allowing it to fall into the hands of buyers with no respect for the land or for our nation's history.
Juliet Perrin
Albrightsville