How Scott Linde, a Pittston Construction Executive, Spent Six Years Preparing a 682-Acre Industrial Campus on Protected Wetlands in Clinton Township, Wayne County — While His High School Friend Became the Township Solicitor, the Chairman’s Son’s Firm Sought the Engineer Contract, and the County’s Own Planning Director Sat on the Economic Development Board Meant to Recruit Exactly This Kind of Project

A Pocono Review Investigation

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• Relevant Read: Clinton Township Data Center: Linde Conflicts

In April 2026, Linde Corporation — a Pittston, Pennsylvania infrastructure construction firm run by Scott Linde — filed an application to build a 20-building data center campus with two natural gas power plants on 682 acres of forested wetland near the village of Browndale in Clinton Township, Wayne County. It is the largest industrial development ever proposed in the county. The township had no zoning ordinance and no data center regulations.

This report documents what the public record shows happened before and after that filing. The township’s solicitor, Ronald M. Bugaj, attended Honesdale High School with Scott Linde, is described as his personal friend, and represented him for years in litigation over control of the Linde family construction business — litigation that produced a Pennsylvania Superior Court decision as recently as April 2025. The township chairman, Mark Lopatofsky, did not disclose that his son Nicholas co-owned Kiley Associates, the engineering firm seeking the township engineer contract — a firm that Linde Corporation itself had recommended to a township resident years earlier. The chairman’s wife, Lisa Lopatofsky, simultaneously held the positions of Township Treasurer and Emergency Management Coordinator. The township’s planning consultant, Tom Shepstone, runs NaturalGasNow.org and is funded by fossil fuel industry donors he will not name. At the county level, Planning Director Craig Rickard — whose department reviews the township’s proposed data center ordinance — sits on the board of the Wayne Economic Development Corporation alongside PPL Electric’s regional affairs director, the head of the firm hired in 2020 to update the township’s land development ordinance (who never finished the work), and Commissioner Brian Smith, who married a woman named Amy Rickard and publicly lamented Wayne County’s inability to drill for natural gas. UGI Utilities, the gas provider in Linde’s plans, sponsors WEDCO’s marketing program. Linde is a certified UGI contractor. And Forest City Energy Center LLC — the Houston-based entity named in the application as holding an option on 811 adjacent acres for a power plant — has no corporate registration in any searchable state.

Most of these connections have not been reported by any outlet covering the story. What follows is a document-by-document reconstruction built from Clinton Township meeting minutes, Pennsylvania state filings, Wayne County court records, Right to Know Law materials obtained by other outlets, Wayne County government publications, WEDCO board records, and corporate filings. Every fact cited is traceable to a named public record.

On the same day Linde filed — April 30, 2026 — the board of supervisors passed a six-month moratorium on data center development. Within weeks, the board replaced Treat with Bugaj without a public vote. Bugaj’s first act as interim solicitor was to advise the board that the moratorium might not be legally valid. Former supervisor James Zefran filed a Sunshine Act lawsuit in Wayne County Court alleging the replacement violated Pennsylvania’s open meetings law.

Three months before Scott Linde first appeared at a Clinton Township board meeting in February 2020, the supervisors had voted unanimously to begin zoning the township. That initiative was abandoned with no documented explanation. By the time Linde filed, the township’s only regulatory tool was a Subdivision and Land Development Ordinance last updated in 2008.

I. THE DEVELOPER AND THE LAND

Linde Corporation

Linde Corporation is a Pennsylvania entity (PA DOS #588121, incorporated 2006) headquartered at 118 Armstrong Road, Pittston, Luzerne County. Officers listed in state filings: Scott Linde (President), Christopher A. Langel (Vice President), Robert L. Hessling (Treasurer), Robert M. McGraw (Secretary). The company describes itself as an infrastructure-focused construction firm operating regionally and internationally. The Linde family business dates to the 1960s; the current corporate entity was incorporated in 2006. Linde’s corporate biography on the Blue Book industry directory claims more than 300 employees, a $20 million construction fleet, and more than $50 million in annual revenues. (Linde’s own website is inconsistent: Scott Linde’s biography page says “nearly 200 employees,” while the company history page lists “150+ individuals in addition to many more subcontractors.” The company’s workforce surged during the Marcellus Shale gas boom — a 2011 WHYY report described Linde as having doubled its workforce to 300 on pipeline work alone.) In 1997, Scott Linde formed Linde International, which partnered with The Summa Group, a Turkish construction firm, on projects in Eastern Europe and Western Africa. This is not a small local contractor. It is a mid-market construction company built on gas infrastructure, with international operations and the resources to pursue a multi-year land play.

The firm’s own website states it is “DOT qualified, PUC registered and UGI Certified” — an approved UGI Utilities contractor. UGI is the natural gas provider listed in the data center development plans. UGI is also a Promoter’s Club Member of WEDCO, the Wayne Economic Development Corporation, paying to sponsor the county’s marketing initiatives. Linde builds for UGI. UGI funds the economic development body whose planning director reviews the ordinances Linde must comply with.

Linde Corporation is itself a WEDCO member. Its dedicated page in WEDCO’s member directory (wayneeconomic.com/index.php/construction/linde-corporation) lists the company at 118 Armstrong Road, Pittston, with a “Membership Level: Sustaining.” The listed contact is Bob Hessling — Robert L. Hessling, the company’s treasurer per state filings — and the contact email is clangel@lindeco.com, the address of Executive Vice President Christopher Langel, the same officer who identified Forest City Energy Center LLC as holding the power plant option. The developer seeking approval from a township whose ordinance review is handled by the county planning director is a dues-paying sustaining member of the economic development organization on whose board that same planning director sits.

Source: WEDCO member directory, wayneeconomic.com/index.php/construction/linde-corporation.

Scott Linde also operates Linde Construction (PA fictitious name #2719682, active) from Golf Hill Road, Honesdale, Wayne County. A separate entity, Linde & Atcavage Partnership (PA #4001042), links the Linde Family Limited Partnership with the Atcavage family at 200 Spring Hill Road, Honesdale. A related entity, E.R. Linde Construction Corporation, operates as Leeward Construction from 239 Golf Hill Road, Honesdale, with principal Gary F. Linde (Scott’s brother). The Linde family has deep, multi-generational business roots in Wayne County.

Scott Linde is publicly listed as a board member of the Lackawanna River Corridor Association and a founding member of Rail/Trail. He is proposing to build a 20-building industrial campus with two natural gas power plants on 682 acres of exceptional-value wetland watershed adjacent to the Lackawanna River. *Per an email from Lackawanna River Conservation Association, Scott Linde has not served on the organization’s board of directors in more than 25 years; the nonprofit was known as the Lackawanna River Corridor Association until a 2018 name change.*

Clinton Township’s relationship with the Linde family’s business entities predates the data center application. The June 2020 Clinton Township Board of Supervisors minutes record a citizen’s observation that township road work had been done by “Leeward” — referring to Leeward Construction, the company controlled by Gary F. Linde.

Source: Clinton Township Board of Supervisors Minutes, June 10, 2020.

The Parcel

The parcel is identified as Wayne County Tax Map Number 06-2-0230-0006. It sits off Route 247 and Flat Rock Road, east of the Lackawanna River, immediately southeast of Browndale. The total acreage described in the application is just over 800 acres, with the data center campus covering approximately 682 acres and Linde holding an adjacent 811-acre parcel to the east in Forest City.

Roger’s Creek runs through the parcel and feeds into the Lackawanna River, which flows to the Susquehanna River and ultimately to the Chesapeake Bay. The parcel sits within one of only two areas in Wayne County officially designated as exceptional value waters. The township has no zoning ordinance, and every family in the surrounding area draws drinking water from a private well.

Clean and Green Enrollment

A Phase 1 archaeological survey conducted by LaBella Associates, contracted by ARM Group LLC, identified the property as enrolled in Wayne County’s Clean and Green preferential tax assessment program. Under Pennsylvania’s Farmland and Forest Land Assessment Act (Act 319 of 1974), enrolled properties receive substantially reduced property tax assessments in exchange for maintaining agricultural or woodland use. Conversion to industrial use triggers rollback taxes covering up to seven years of the difference between the preferential assessment and fair market value. No public reporting on this story has addressed the rollback tax implications of converting 682 enrolled acres to an industrial data center campus.

Source: Radio Catskill/WJFF, May 29, 2026, citing LaBella survey included in Linde’s development plans obtained via RTK by The River Reporter.

II. SIX YEARS OF PREPARATION

September 2018: The Board’s Conflict Standard, and What It Looked Like

Before Scott Linde ever appeared at a Clinton Township meeting, the board demonstrated it knew how to run a conflict check. At a September 2018 meeting, the supervisors were weighing paving bids. Wayco submitted the lowest bid — and offered 2.5 inches of paving against Linde’s 2 inches for less money. Supervisor Russell Curtis said he would not vote for Wayco because the township’s own engineer, Jeff Weinberger, worked for the company. Weinberger, in the audience, said the matter had been raised when he was hired and he had been assured there was no conflict as long as he did not help formulate the bid. A resident asked whether the board could check with the township solicitor.

The board moved to award the contract to Wayco only if Solicitor Jeffrey Treat and PSATS (the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors) confirmed there was no conflict, with E.R. Linde Construction — Gary Linde’s company — as the fallback bid if a conflict was found. Weinberger stood up and said, “I officially resign right now.” Chairman Kenneth Coles asked him to hold off until the board could get accurate information. Weinberger replied, “No, I’m out.”

The episode is a benchmark. When a resident raised a conflict question about a routine paving contract in 2018, the board ran it through the solicitor and the state association and made the award conditional in the motion itself. Eight years later, the same board would take the developer’s personal friend as solicitor without a public vote, allow the chairman’s son’s engineering firm to seek the township contract without disclosure, and continue using E.R. Linde’s affiliated company for road work — with none of the 2018 conflict machinery applied. E.R. Linde Construction Corporation, operating as Leeward Construction, appears in the September 2018 bidding record and again in the June 2020 minutes doing township road work.

Source: Clinton Township Board of Supervisors Minutes, September 2018 (Document Center View/2345); June 10, 2020.

December 12, 2018: Flat Rock Road Becomes Energy Infrastructure

More than a year before Scott Linde first appeared at a township meeting, Flat Rock Road had already been transformed from a seasonally closed rural road into year-round heavy-truck infrastructure — to service the wind turbines on the ridge above Browndale.

At the December 12, 2018 board meeting, chaired by Kenneth Coles, a resident named Jason Debevek told the board during public comment that “Flat Rock Road used to be closed during the winter and is now kept open year around to accommodate trucks servicing the windmills.” The board was also informed that the windmill easement agreement was being transferred from “the original company to the new company” — the old contract having been provided by “NextEra, formerly PPL Group Capital, Inc.” Secretary Jill Droppa was asked to send the new contract to Solicitor Jeffrey Treat for review.

Also at that December 2018 meeting, Vice Chair Brian Non mentioned that “next year there are plans to work on Little Keen and Flat Rock” roads.

PPL is the same utility listed as the power provider for Linde’s proposed data center site. PPL’s Regional Affairs Director for the area, Alana Roberts, sits on WEDCO’s board.

Source: Clinton Township Board of Supervisors Minutes, December 12, 2018.

November 13, 2019: The Board Votes to Zone — Then Doesn’t

Three months before Scott Linde appeared at a township meeting to ask about bridge weight limits, the Clinton Township Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to start the process of implementing zoning.

At the November 13, 2019 meeting — still chaired by Kenneth Coles, with Vice Chair Brian Non and Supervisor Russell Curtis present — the board’s alternate solicitor, Attorney Christopher Farrell, updated supervisors on the GlidePath wind energy easement negotiations. In that presentation, Farrell noted that Flat Rock Road bridge had weight limits “that are exceeded by the weight of GlidePath trucks” — the precise issue Scott Linde would raise four months later. Farrell said that GlidePath was requesting permission to have their engineers assess the bridge.

Farrell then raised a broader concern. He told the board that “a different company wants to put in 500′ windmills, but without zoning they cannot be stopped.” He described the consequences of unzoned townships using the example of Dunmore, which was fighting an expansive landfill and was “powerless to stop it.” Supervisor Russell Curtis responded that he didn’t want them “to be like a bunch of city people.” Chairman Kenneth Coles replied that “if you want to keep it like it is, zoning is the only way to do it,” and made a motion to start the process.

The motion passed unanimously. All three supervisors voted yes.

There is no evidence in the public minutes that the Clinton Township zoning process initiated in November 2019 ever progressed to adoption. The township’s primary regulatory tool when Linde filed its application in April 2026 remained the Subdivision and Land Development Ordinance (SALDO) last updated in 2008.

Also at the November 13, 2019 meeting: Chairman Kenneth Coles congratulated newly elected supervisor James Zefran on his victory and moved to send him to PSATS Boot Camp for Township Officials. Zefran would become chairman in January 2020.

Source: Clinton Township Board of Supervisors Minutes, November 13, 2019.

February 12, 2020: Scott Linde Asks About the Bridges

The regular meeting of the Clinton Township Board of Supervisors was called to order by Chairman James Zefran, newly installed that January. Vice Chair Brian Non and Supervisor Russell Curtis were present, along with Solicitor Jeffrey Treat. Under public comment, Scott Linde appeared and inquired about the Flat Rock Bridge. He told the supervisors that Linde Company “was willing to work with the township to see what load the bridge can carry among other things for the good of the community.”

Six years later, in a May 2026 interview, former Solicitor Jeffrey Treat described what he understood at the time:

“When Scott Linde was sitting in our meeting in February, I knew what he was up to. Scott Linde said, ‘I’ll give you a new bridge. I’ll pay for it.’ A bridge. Why? The bridge is what he needs to put the data center in.”

Source: Jeffrey Treat interview, published in The River Reporter, May 11, 2026.

The Flat Rock Road bridge is labeled on the development plans as the primary entrance to the proposed data center campus.

The February 12, 2020 minutes also document that, during the same meeting, citizens raised the question of zoning for the township. Kenneth Coles — who had led the November 2019 zoning vote — suggested revisiting zoning, and Solicitor Jeffrey Treat seconded the recommendation. Supervisor Russell Curtis responded with a flat “No.” A volunteer study group of five citizens was formed. The zoning initiative went no further.

Source: Clinton Township Board of Supervisors Minutes, February 12, 2020.

June 10, 2020: The SALDO Update That Stalled

At the June 10, 2020 meeting, alternate solicitor Christopher Farrell presented an updated GlidePath wind easement proposal. Separately, the board voted to hire Woodland Design Associates to review and update the SALDO ordinance, with a price limit of $7,500. Woodland Design’s Michael Wood had told the board that the SALDO “is eleven years old, and no doubt needs updating.”

The SALDO remained “last updated in 2008” at the time Linde filed its 2026 application. What happened to the Woodland Design contract has not been reported.

Woodland Design Associates is a Honesdale-based landscape architecture and land planning firm. Michael Wood, its founder and president, sits on the WEDCO board of directors. At the time Wood was being paid to update the township’s regulatory baseline for land development, he was also a member of the county’s economic development body that exists to attract industrial investment.

Sources: Clinton Township Board of Supervisors Minutes, June 10, 2020; WEDCO Board of Directors, wayneeconomic.com.

August 11, 2021: Flat Rock Road Work Proceeds

The August 11, 2021 meeting confirms that reclamation work on Flat Rock Road was planned for early September of that year. The road that would later be designated as the primary entrance to a proposed 20-building data center campus was being actively maintained and improved through the period of Linde’s preparation.

Source: Clinton Township Board of Supervisors Minutes, August 11, 2021.

September 13, 2023 — March 2024: The Lopatofsky Family Arrives

The September 13, 2023 meeting minutes record an exchange in which “Mr. Lopatofsky” questioned the board about a contractor payment — the earliest confirmed appearance of a Lopatofsky in the township’s public meeting record. By March 13, 2024, Mark Lopatofsky appears in the minutes as a Clinton Township auditor with financial oversight responsibility.

At the same March 2024 meeting, Supervisor Brian Non moved to hire “Lisa Lapotosky” at $14.00 per hour to scan documents. Chairman James Zefran tabled the motion. Within two years, three Lopatofskys would hold positions in the township’s leadership structure.

Source: Clinton Township Board of Supervisors Minutes, September 13, 2023; March 13, 2024.

December 2025: The Board Requests a Data Center Ordinance

The Clinton Township Board of Supervisors requested that Solicitor Jeffrey Treat begin preparing an ordinance to address data center development. The township’s primary regulatory tool remained the 2008 SALDO. Planning commission chair Brandon Cole later confirmed the December 2025 timeline to reporters, and Treat’s subsequent work product — a draft data center ordinance — was the document discussed at the May 7, 2026 planning commission meeting.

Sources: Clinton Township planning commission public meeting, May 7, 2026; confirmed in coverage by Radio Catskill/WJFF, June 11, 2026.

January 5, 2026: Kiley Associates, the Lopatofskys, and the Consultant

The Clinton Township reorganization meeting agenda for January 5, 2026 lists the township engineer position as “Currently Jeff Weinberger” with a notation: “Letter of interest received from Kiley Associates, LLC.”

The same agenda lists Lisa Lopatofsky as both Treasurer and Emergency Management Coordinator. Tom Shepstone of Shepstone Management Company is listed as the township’s “Consultant.”

Tom Shepstone runs a planning and research firm from 100 Fourth Street, Honesdale — the same county seat as Bugaj/Fischer PC, Linde Construction’s registered address, and Woodland Design Associates. His public-facing operation is NaturalGasNow.org. When asked who funds his work, Shepstone told DeSmog: “I’m pleased to say I’m funded by various members of the industry and landowners who understand how incredibly important natural gas development is to rural areas like the one I live in. I don’t disclose my individual donors, of course.” He is a former staffer of Energy in Depth, a fossil fuel industry front group created in 2009 by the Independent Petroleum Association of America. He has testified on behalf of shale development and published extensively against pipeline bans and environmental regulation of the fossil fuel industry.

Shepstone’s firm has prepared SALDO documents for other Wayne County townships. He has consulted for Wayne County Commissioners directly — the August 2020 commissioners meeting minutes show him presenting a dairy plant feasibility study. He was Clinton Township’s planning consultant at the moment the township was deciding whether to pursue zoning, update its SALDO, or do nothing.

Sources: Clinton Township Reorganization Meeting Agenda, January 5, 2026; DeSmog, September 18, 2015; Wayne County Commissioners Meeting Minutes, August 13, 2020; shepstone.net.

February 4, 2026: The Mystery Buyer Surfaces

An email from Linde Corporation Executive Vice President Christopher Langel, later included in the development plans as documentation for sewer authority service, identifies a Houston-based entity as holding an option on the adjacent land:

“We are working with a company who has an option with us on our 811-acre property to the east of 247 in Forest City to build a power plant. They have asked us to assist with will-serve letters during their due diligence stages… The company is Forest City Energy Center LLC and has its principal place of business at 800 Town and Country Boulevard, #500, Houston, TX, 77024.”

Source: Christopher Langel email, February 4, 2026.

800 Town and Country Boulevard, Suite 500, is the address of Spaces CityCentre One — a coworking facility in Houston’s Memorial City district that rents private offices, meeting rooms, and shared workspaces on flexible contracts. Commercial real estate listings confirm Suite 500 at that address is occupied entirely by Spaces, which operates five floors of the building. The address has 248 companies registered to it and is a common registration point for energy-sector LLCs that need a prestigious zip code without a physical footprint.

Forest City Energy Center LLC does not appear in state business registries in Texas, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Wyoming, or Nevada. The entity named in an official township application as holding a financial interest in an 811-acre power plant option has no discoverable legal existence anywhere.

April 30, 2026: The Application and the Moratorium

On the same day, two things happened. Linde Corporation filed its land development application with the Clinton Township planning commission. And the board of supervisors passed a six-month moratorium on data center development.

The application described: 20 data center buildings, each 118,000 square feet; two on-site natural gas power generation facilities; two customer substations; a water treatment building; parking, utilities, landscaping, and stormwater management. The plans name four utility providers: Pennsylvania American Water for water supply, the Lackawanna River Basin Sewer Authority for sewer service, PPL Electric Utilities for power, and UGI Utilities for natural gas. Engineering plans were prepared by Kimley-Horn & Associates. Anticipated peak water demand: approximately 940,000 gallons per day combined. Every surrounding household draws from a private well.

A revised version of the plans posted to the township website in early June 2026 reduced the total project footprint to approximately 662 acres, with the data center campus covering about 520 acres. The original April 30 application described 682 acres. The figures in this report use the April 30 filing unless otherwise noted.

Source: Linde Corporation Land Development Plans, April 30, 2026 (obtained via RTK filed by The River Reporter); revised plans posted to clintontwpwayne.com, June 2026.

III. TOWNSHIP-LEVEL CONFLICTS

The Solicitor Swap

Sometime in late May 2026, the board of supervisors ended the tenure of longtime township solicitor Jeffrey Treat and appointed Ronald M. Bugaj of Bugaj/Fischer PC, Honesdale, as interim solicitor — without a public vote. In June 2026, former supervisor James Zefran filed a Sunshine Act lawsuit in Wayne County Court alleging the replacement violated Pennsylvania’s open meetings law. The case remains pending as of this writing.

Bugaj went to high school with Scott Linde. His graduation year is listed inconsistently across sources: the Bugaj/Fischer PC firm website and a legal directory profile both state he “graduated from Honesdale High School in 1967,” while the Wayne County Bar Association’s official biography lists 1968. Linde’s own corporate history says the family business started in 1965 and that Scott Linde “has been in the business since he was still in high school.” Whether the two men were in the same graduating class or one year apart, they attended the same school in the same era in a town of roughly 4,800 people. People search records place Scott Linde’s address history in Honesdale and Forest City, with associated relatives including Gary Linde, Eric Linde, and Barbara Bold — Barbara Linde by birth, the sister named in decades of family litigation. The Center Square described Bugaj as Linde’s “personal friend.” A “Joint Waiver of Conflict of Interest and Informed Consent,” obtained via Right to Know request filed by The Center Square, states that Bugaj’s firm “previously represented Linde ‘in various matters unrelated to the subject of this waiver.'”

Those “various matters” are identifiable — and far more extensive than any reporting has established.

The Wayne County Legal Journal for July 19, 2013, lists Ronald M. Bugaj, Esquire as defense attorney for Scott Linde in Wayne County Court Cases No. 27-1999-Equity and 208-1999-Civil — a shareholder derivative lawsuit among the Linde siblings over control of the family construction business. But that 1999 litigation was not the end of it. Court records confirm that Scott Linde and his brother Eric have been in continuous or recurring litigation over control of Linde Enterprises, Inc. from 1999 through at least April 2025 — nine months before the data center application was filed.

A Pennsylvania Superior Court memorandum decision filed April 8, 2025 — Linde, S. v. Linde Enterprises, Inc., No. 1045 EDA 2024, appealed from Wayne County Court of Common Pleas docket 2019-00348 — sets out the full factual history. The 2025 decision states that “since 1999, the siblings have been involved in multiple lawsuits against each other, including a 1999 shareholder derivative action filed by Eric against [Scott] and Barbara for allegedly starting their own company and funneling assets of LEI into their company.” A settlement was reached on the eve of trial in 2014, requiring Scott Linde to pay Eric $2,000,000 and transfer interests in certain other entities and land in exchange for Eric’s 300 shares of LEI stock and Eric’s stock in another corporation. Scott Linde did not make the payments. The trial court found that Scott Linde “breached the Agreement,” that he “never intended to purchase Eric’s stock in LEI as per the terms of the Agreement,” and that his “deceptive conduct was a pretext to avoid Eric’s 1999 derivative action.” The court ordered Scott Linde to immediately pay $1,400,000. The judgment was affirmed by the Superior Court, and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court denied the appeal. In 2019, Scott Linde filed a new action against Eric and Linde Enterprises — the case at docket 2019-00348 — alleging unjust enrichment, breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, and conversion. That case went to trial over three days in 2021 and 2022. Scott Linde lost on compulsory nonsuit. He appealed. The Superior Court remanded in 2023. On remand, Scott Linde was denied leave to amend his complaint to bring a shareholder derivative action. He appealed again. On April 8, 2025, the Superior Court affirmed the denial. The Linde family construction-company war was still generating appellate decisions less than a year before Scott Linde filed the data center application.

The waiver’s characterization of Bugaj’s prior work as “various matters unrelated to the subject of this waiver” rests on the premise that a family fight over ownership of a Wayne County construction company is unrelated to a Wayne County land development application filed by the same man who lost that fight. Bugaj did not represent Scott Linde in a routine real estate closing or a traffic matter. He represented Scott Linde, for years, in a corporate control dispute over construction businesses in Wayne County. Whether Bugaj continued to represent Scott Linde in the 2019–2025 phase of the litigation has not been established in the public record; the 2025 Superior Court opinion does not name the attorneys of record. But the Wayne County Court of Common Pleas docket at 2019-00348 would.

The waiver’s “disclosure of potential conflicts” section lists areas where conflicts could occur: zoning, traffic, environmental, utility, and public safety concerns. Those categories are standard in municipal conflict waivers, but they also describe precisely the regulatory exposure of a land development application for 20 industrial buildings, two natural gas power plants, and nearly a million gallons of daily water demand on exceptional-value wetlands.

The waiver was signed by township supervisors, Bugaj, and a Linde Corporation executive. It was discussed at a public meeting. But the underlying personnel decision — firing Treat and hiring Bugaj — was made without a public vote, and the Sunshine Act lawsuit alleging that violation remains pending.

Bugaj/Fischer PC also operates Wayne County Abstract, a title insurance company at 308 9th Street, Honesdale — the same suite as the law firm. The firm’s website says so directly: “We also handle real estate transactions through our title insurance company, Wayne County Abstract.” Wayne County Abstract’s own website states that Bugaj “has handled in excess of 1000 closings, representing all aspects of sales — buyers, sellers and mortgagors — as both an attorney and a title insurance closing agent,” and has been licensed by the Pennsylvania Insurance Commission as a title insurance agent for over 20 years. Whether Wayne County Abstract touched any title work on the Linde parcels has not been investigated. A single records request to the Wayne County Recorder of Deeds would answer the question.

At his first board meeting as interim solicitor, on May 29, 2026, Bugaj advised the board that the moratorium may not be legal under Pennsylvania’s Municipalities Planning Code. Bugaj told the Center Square: “Clinton is very rural and that a lot of people know each other.” He described his status as interim: “I am here for now.” He said there had been full disclosure to all parties. Even residents who oppose the data center acknowledged Bugaj’s conduct at meetings. “The township does need a solicitor,” said Thane Rickard, an engineer and member of the Save Browndale Mountain opposition group, who described the data center proposal as “predatory.” But nearly everyone at a recent meeting, according to fellow group member Raelyn Garriga, was “concerned about solicitor Bugaj and his position as a personal friend” of the developer.

State legislators who reviewed the waiver document were not reassured. Republican Rep. Jamie Walsh of Luzerne County called it “a major conflict of interest” and said “the people that live in that township are going to lose in the end.” Democratic Sen. Katie Muth of Chester County said “it’s hard to believe this previous relationship wouldn’t impact the outcome for this community.”

Sources: The Center Square, June 12, 2026; Wayne County Legal Journal, July 19, 2013; Radio Catskill/WJFF, June 4, 2026; Linde, S. v. Linde Enterprises, Inc., No. 1045 EDA 2024 (Pa. Super. April 8, 2025) (Justia); Wayne County Bar Association attorney biography (waynecountypalawyers.com); Wayne County Abstract Company (waynecountyabstract.com); Bugaj/Fischer PC (bugaj-fischer-law.com).

The Lopatofsky Family

When Linde’s application was advancing in early 2026, three members of the Lopatofsky family held positions in the township’s leadership structure simultaneously.

Mark Lopatofsky served as a Clinton Township auditor from at least March 2024 before becoming Chairman of the Board of Supervisors by early 2026. In that auditor role, he carried financial oversight responsibility over the township’s books. He did not publicly disclose that his son co-owned the township’s engineering firm until residents forced the issue at a public meeting on July 17, 2026.

Lisa Lopatofsky held two appointed township roles simultaneously: Treasurer and Emergency Management Coordinator. As Treasurer, she managed the financial records, including any payments to engineering firms. Her path to those roles began with Supervisor Brian Non’s motion in March 2024 to hire her at $14.00 an hour to scan documents — a motion specifically tabled by the previous chairman. Non continued advocating for her expanded role. After Secretary Jill Droppa resigned in November 2024 after eleven years of service, Lisa Lopatofsky’s position expanded. Supervisor Brian Non was the person who championed each step of her advancement.

Nicholas (Nick) Lopatofsky appeared as a representative of Kiley Associates LLC at municipal planning meetings across Wayne County, confirmed in Honesdale Borough Council minutes from April 2022 and Honesdale Borough Planning Commission records from October 2024. His father confirmed his ownership stake in Kiley Associates at the July 17, 2026 meeting.

Sources: Clinton Township Board of Supervisors Minutes, March 13, 2024; August 14, 2024; September 11, 2024; January 5, 2026; Honesdale Borough Council Minutes, April 25, 2022; Honesdale Borough Planning Commission Annual Report, 2024; WVIA, July 17, 2026.

Kiley Associates and the Linde Recommendation

Kiley Associates LLC is a civil engineering firm based in Lakeville/Hawley, Wayne County. At the January 5, 2026 reorganization meeting, the firm submitted a letter of interest for the township engineer position — three months before Linde filed its data center application.

At the July 17, 2026 public meeting, resident Linda Zefran stated on the record: “Kylie Associates was our engineer on that project, and I found Kylie Engineering because Linde Corporation recommended that that’s who I get for the sidewalk project. They had told me that Kylie did a lot of work for them in the past.”

The sidewalk project Linda Zefran referenced — the Browndale Sidewalk Project — appears in Clinton Township minutes going back to December 2018. If the Linde recommendation was made during that period, the Linde-Kiley relationship predates the January 2026 letter of interest by at least six years.

Kiley Associates’ public project portfolio includes a PPL Northeast Pocono Reliability Project spanning Pike, Wayne, and Lackawanna Counties — the same PPL Electric that is listed as the power provider for Linde’s data center site.

Sources: Clinton Township Reorganization Meeting Agenda, January 5, 2026; Clinton Township Board of Supervisors Minutes, December 12, 2018 (Browndale Sidewalk Project); WVIA, July 17, 2026 (Linda Zefran statement); Kiley Associates project portfolio (kileyassociates.com).

Barry Isett & Associates

Before Lopatofsky’s resignation at the July 17, 2026 meeting, supervisors hired Barry Isett & Associates Inc. to serve as the township’s engineer specifically for the data center project. Isett is an employee-owned, multi-discipline engineering and consulting firm headquartered in Allentown, with offices across eastern and central Pennsylvania. The firm’s services span civil/land development, structural, mechanical/electrical/plumbing, water and wastewater, municipal, traffic, and environmental engineering. Who recommended Isett to the township — and whether that recommendation came through Bugaj, Supervisor Non, or the development team itself — has not been asked publicly.

Source: WVIA, July 17, 2026.

Kimley-Horn and Justin Moceri

The civil engineer who appeared at the June 3, 2026 planning commission meeting to defend Linde’s application on behalf of the development team was Justin Moceri of Kimley-Horn & Associates — identified in separate coverage of a different project as “the project manager and land development services practice builder” at Kimley-Horn, a leadership role in their regional land development practice.

Months earlier, Moceri had offered Archbald Borough officials the chance to “pick my brain on insight into the data center overlay district text language given my experience” — the day after Archbald staff met with representatives of a data center developer that Kimley-Horn was also representing. The offer was captured in emails obtained by DeSmog. The same engineering firm was helping a municipality write its data center zoning rules while representing developers seeking approvals under those rules. Moceri then appeared in Clinton Township to argue that Linde’s application satisfied the ordinance requirements.

Source: DeSmog, March 11, 2026.

IV. COUNTY-LEVEL CONFLICTS

The Wayne County Planning Department

Under Pennsylvania’s Municipalities Planning Code, when a municipality proposes a new ordinance, it must refer the draft to the county planning agency for review and comment. The agency has 45 days to respond. Clinton Township’s planning commission voted in May 2026 to send the proposed data center ordinance to the Wayne County Planning Commission for review.

The Wayne County Department of Planning, which staffs and directs the Planning Commission, is led by Craig E. Rickard. Rickard has served as director since 1991 and is a graduate of Honesdale High School — the same institution that appears in the biographies of Ronald Bugaj and Scott Linde (late 1960s), and of Wayne County Planning Commission member Paul Meagher Jr. (different era). Rickard simultaneously serves on the board of directors of WEDCO — the Wayne Economic Development Corporation — whose stated mission is to create jobs and attract industrial investment to Wayne County.

A 20-building data center campus with two natural gas power plants represents exactly the category of project WEDCO exists to recruit.

The Wayne County Planning Commission’s nine-member board is appointed by the Wayne County Commissioners. Its current members include Paul Meagher Jr., president of Meagher Insurance and Financial Services in Honesdale, who serves on the Wayne Memorial Health System Board — a board that also includes a WEDCO board member. The commission’s chairman is Pete Ridd.

Sources: Wayne County Planning Commission 2025 Annual Report (waynepikenews.com); Wayne County Planning Commission May 12, 2026 Meeting Agenda; WEDCO Board of Directors, wayneeconomic.com.

WEDCO: The Economic Development Board as Conflict Map

WEDCO’s board of directors constitutes the most concentrated overlap of conflicts in this story. As of July 2026, it includes:

Craig Rickard, Wayne County Department of Planning — The county official whose office reviews municipal ordinances, including the Clinton Township data center ordinance sent for county review in May 2026. His department’s review is intended to provide independent county-level scrutiny of local land use decisions.

Alana Roberts, Regional Affairs Director, PPL Electric Utilities — Roberts’s job at PPL is managing the utility’s relationships with local governments and economic development organizations across the region. Her WEDCO seat is not incidental volunteerism; it is the institutional mechanism through which PPL maintains influence over Wayne County’s development priorities. PPL is the power provider listed for Linde’s proposed data center campus and appears in Clinton Township meeting minutes going back to December 2018 in connection with the wind energy easements on Flat Rock Road. The utility whose infrastructure underpins the Linde project placed its regional government affairs officer on the county economic development board — alongside the county planning director who reviews the ordinances that would govern the project.

Michael Wood, Woodland Design Associates — Woodland Design was hired by Clinton Township in June 2020 to update the SALDO ordinance for up to $7,500, after Michael Wood himself told the board that the 2008 ordinance “no doubt needs updating.” The update was never completed. When Linde filed its application in April 2026, the 2008 SALDO was still the operative document. The man hired to modernize the regulatory baseline that would have governed Linde’s project sits on the board of the county economic development organization alongside the county planning director and the developer’s utility provider.

Brian Smith, Wayne County Commissioner — Commissioner Smith has served on WEDCO as one of his explicitly listed appointed roles, confirmed in a 2025 CCAP Commissioner of the Year award citation. He has served as Wayne County Commissioner since 2008. He was specifically praised for his role in creating the Wayne Tomorrow! initiative — a WEDCO program. In Wayne County Commissioners meeting minutes from February 2025, Smith stated that “if we had been able to drill for gas in Wayne County, we would have millions of dollars available for these sorts of recreational projects.” Smith married the former Amy Rickard in 1985. Craig Rickard, the Wayne County Planning Director who also serves on WEDCO’s board, shares that surname. An older version of Craig Rickard’s county staff biography states that he resides in Texas Township “with his wife Kim.” Kim Rickard served as the Wayne Tomorrow! Community Network Specialist — the county government position administering the initiative Smith founded. The county planning director’s wife worked in a position created by and reporting to the commissioner who sits on WEDCO alongside her husband. *A reader has messaged us stating they are no longer married.* Whether Amy Rickard Smith and Craig Rickard are also related — making Smith and the planning director in-laws — has not been established in the public record but warrants direct inquiry.

UGI, WEDCO Promoter’s Club Member — UGI Utilities appears in WEDCO’s website footer as a Promoter’s Club Member, paying to sponsor the county’s marketing initiatives. UGI is listed in the Linde data center development plans as the natural gas provider for the site. Linde Corporation’s own website describes the firm as “UGI Certified” — an approved UGI contractor. The utility that Linde is certified to install infrastructure for is paying to sponsor the economic development body whose planning director reviews the ordinances Linde has to comply with.

Linde Corporation itself, WEDCO Sustaining Member — Beyond the utility relationships, the developer is a direct dues-paying member. WEDCO’s member directory lists Linde Corporation at 118 Armstrong Road, Pittston, at the “Sustaining” membership level, with treasurer Bob Hessling as contact and VP Christopher Langel’s email as the point of contact. Linde is not a bystander to the economic development organization whose board reviews its project — it pays to belong to it.

The county planning function that is supposed to provide independent review of local development decisions sits inside the same institutional network as the project’s utility providers, the commissioner who controls the planning commission appointment process, and the engineering firm that was paid to update — and did not update — the regulatory document the project would have had to satisfy.

Sources: WEDCO Board of Directors, wayneeconomic.com; WEDCO member directory, wayneeconomic.com/index.php/construction/linde-corporation (Linde “Sustaining” membership); Brian Smith bio, waynecountypa.gov; Wayne County Commissioners Meeting Minutes, February 27, 2025; CCAP Commissioner of the Year, The River Reporter, August 22, 2025; lindeco.com; Wayne County Planning Commission Staff Bios (Craig Rickard bio, older version: “resides in Texas Township with his wife Kim”); Wayne County Governmental Department Listing (Kim Rickard, Community Network Specialist, Wayne Tomorrow!).

The Three Commissioners

Wayne County has three commissioners. Their relationship to this project differs markedly.

Brian Smith (Republican, Commissioner since 2008) holds the most direct institutional connections to WEDCO and the county’s economic development apparatus. His CCAP award citation lists WEDCO service as one of his appointed roles. He publicly lamented the county’s inability to drill for natural gas. He married Amy Rickard, sharing a surname with the county’s planning director. The Wayne County Planning Commission’s nine volunteer board members are all appointed by the Board of Commissioners — the body Smith chairs.

James Shook (Republican, appointed December 2022) is a small business operator — bowling alley, grocery store, restaurant — with no documented direct connection to WEDCO, Linde, or any other entity involved in the data center proposal. He replaced Joseph Adams, who left to serve in the state legislature.

Jocelyn Cramer (Democrat) served as executive director of SEEDS (Sustainable Energy Education & Development Support) from 2013 to 2018 and currently chairs the Sustainable Energy Fund (Allentown). She is a lifelong supporter of the environment and voted against the 2024 Wayne County Comprehensive Plan update — the only commissioner to do so. She does not appear in WEDCO’s board roster and does not hold any disclosed connection to Linde, PPL, UGI, or Woodland Design. Her background in sustainable energy development puts her broadly at odds with the interests served by a two-natural-gas-power-plant data center on exceptional value watershed.

The three commissioners appoint the Wayne County Planning Commission board. Smith founded the initiative WEDCO exists to run. Cramer has no disclosed connection to any entity in this web and is the county’s most visible voice for environmental and sustainable energy policy. Shook has no traceable connection to the project’s interests.

Sources: Wayne County Commissioner bios, waynecountypa.gov; Wayne County Commissioners Meeting Minutes, February 22, 2024.

V. THE GHOST COMPANY

Forest City Energy Center LLC is the only entity beyond Linde Corporation itself that appears in the public record as holding a direct financial interest in the project. The February 4, 2026 Langel email names it as the company with an option on Linde’s 811-acre Forest City parcel for a power plant. Its listed principal place of business: 800 Town and Country Boulevard, Suite 500, Houston, Texas 77024.

Suite 500 at that address is Spaces CityCentre One — a coworking facility that rents private offices and conference rooms on flexible contracts. Commercial real estate records confirm the space. The address appears in 248 corporate registration filings. It is a common virtual-office address for energy-sector LLCs operating near Houston’s Energy Corridor.

Forest City Energy Center LLC does not appear in state business registries in Texas, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Wyoming, or Nevada. No PJM Interconnection queue entry for any natural gas generation project has been filed in Wayne County. No FERC eLibrary filing references the entity. The name does not appear in any federal or state regulatory database accessible through public search.

Who stands behind Forest City Energy Center LLC remains the single most consequential undisclosed fact in this story. The Lackawanna River Basin Sewer Authority received a will-serve request from this entity; their records may name the applicant’s principals. That inquiry has not been made public.

Sources: Christopher Langel email, February 4, 2026 (included in Linde development plans obtained via RTK by The River Reporter); LoopNet/Crexi commercial real estate records (800 Town and Country Blvd, Houston TX 77024 — Spaces CityCentre One); PA Department of State, Texas Secretary of State, Delaware Division of Corporations, Wyoming Secretary of State, Nevada Secretary of State (business entity searches — no results); PJM Interconnection queue (Wayne County, PA — no active gas or data center projects); FERC eLibrary (no filings referencing entity).

VI. CAMP FREEDOM AND THE ENVIRONMENTAL RECORD

Camp Freedom Inc. is a year-round adventure camp for individuals with disabilities, including veterans, first responders, their families, and Gold Star families, based out of Carbondale, Pennsylvania. The camp provides therapeutic outdoor programs — hunting, fishing, shooting sports, camping, hiking, biking — adapted for wheelchair access. Its high-fenced hunting area, one of its most-used features, runs directly along the border of Linde’s property.

Resident Katie Zefran told the Clinton Township Planning Commission at the May 7, 2026 meeting: “Placing a data center on that property would harm the animals and degrade the environment at Camp Freedom.” She asked: “Do we care about our veterans, or do we care about data centers?”

The Damascus Citizens for Sustainability described the Linde parcel as “a 743-acre plot of forested wetland feeding directly into the Lackawanna River, less than 1 mile from the center of Forest City,” with the “abutting property” being “several thousand acres of wetland conserved for biodiversity (Camp Freedom).”

Anticipated peak water demand: approximately 940,000 gallons per day combined for the data center campus and power generation facility. The parcel sits within one of only two areas in Wayne County designated as exceptional value waters under Pennsylvania’s water quality standards. Every surrounding household draws from a private well. Former supervisor James Zefran brought a Trout Unlimited policy paper to the May 7 planning commission meeting encouraging data center siting away from headwaters and critical water habitats. No water use review has been conducted.

The development plans acknowledge the site is within the range of the northern long-eared bat and the Indiana bat, both federally listed species. The Pennsylvania Game Commission deferred to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. SHPO identified a high probability of National Register-eligible archaeological sites. A Phase 1 survey by LaBella concluded no further investigation was warranted.

Sources: Clinton Township Planning Commission meeting, May 7, 2026 (Katie Zefran and James Zefran statements); Damascus Citizens for Sustainability, May 7, 2026; Linde Corporation Land Development Plans (species range and SHPO findings).

VII. WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

The following dates are on the public record as of July 20, 2026:

July 30, 2026 — Public hearing on the SALDO amendment to incorporate data center regulations.

August 3 and August 17, 2026 — Land development plan hearings on Linde’s preliminary application.

August 4, 2026 — Board of supervisors vote on new meeting rules, including a 3-minute limit on public comment. This vote is scheduled the day after the first land development plan hearing.

The regulatory race is this: if the SALDO amendment is adopted before Linde’s application is accepted as complete, the project must comply with the new data center regulations. If Linde’s application is accepted first, it proceeds under the 2008 SALDO — which has no data center provisions at all. Bugaj told the supervisors at the May 29 meeting that regulations put in place after the application has been made will likely only apply to future projects, and that once the application is approved for submission, the township has 90 days to decide or the project is automatically deemed approved. His legal opinion that the April 30 moratorium may not be valid was the opening move in a contest over which document governs the project. The township now has two remaining supervisors — Brian Non and Brad Bates — after Lopatofsky’s resignation on July 17.

Sources: Clinton Township Board of Supervisors meeting, May 29, 2026; Radio Catskill/WJFF, June 11, 2026; development plans posted to clintontwpwayne.com.

VIII. COMPLETE DOCUMENTED TIMELINE

September 2018 — At a Clinton Township meeting, Supervisor Russell Curtis objects to awarding a paving contract to low bidder Wayco because township engineer Jeff Weinberger works for the company. The board makes the award conditional on Solicitor Treat and PSATS confirming no conflict, with E.R. Linde Construction (Gary Linde’s company) as the fallback bid. Weinberger resigns on the spot: “I officially resign right now… No, I’m out.” The board’s conflict-check standard is on the record.

December 12, 2018 — Clinton Township Board of Supervisors meeting, chaired by Kenneth Coles. Resident Jason Debevek tells the board that Flat Rock Road is now kept open year-round to service wind turbines, and that the wind easement agreement is being transferred from NextEra (formerly PPL Group Capital, Inc.) to a new company.

November 13, 2019 — Chairman Kenneth Coles and the full board unanimously vote to start the process of zoning the township, after Attorney Christopher Farrell warns that a company wants to build 500-foot windmills and cannot be stopped without zoning. The zoning initiative does not appear to have advanced.

February 12, 2020 — Scott Linde attends Clinton Township Board of Supervisors meeting. Asks about bridge weight limits on Flat Rock Road. Offers to pay for bridge improvements. At the same meeting, citizens again raise zoning; Supervisor Russell Curtis again says no.

June 10, 2020 — Board hires Woodland Design Associates to update the SALDO ordinance for up to $7,500. Michael Wood of Woodland Design tells the board the 2008 SALDO “no doubt needs updating.” The SALDO remains “last updated 2008” when Linde files its application six years later. Woodland Design’s Michael Wood sits on the WEDCO board.

August 11, 2021 — Road reclamation work on Flat Rock Road planned for early September.

September 13, 2023 — “Mr. Lopatofsky” appears in board meeting minutes for the first time.

March 13, 2024 — Mark Lopatofsky is identified as a Clinton Township auditor. Supervisor Brian Non moves to hire “Lisa Lapotosky” at $14.00/hour; Chairman Zefran tables the motion. Supervisor Non reports work on Flat Rock Road.

August 14, 2024 — Minutes note that “windmill money had come in” and that Lisa Lopatofsky and Supervisor Brian Non are working together on a Dirt and Gravel grant.

September 11, 2024 — Both Mark and Lisa Lopatofsky attend the Wayne County Association of Township Officials Fall Convention. Secretary Jill Droppa submits resignation, effective November 12, 2024, after eleven years of service. Lisa Lopatofsky’s expanded role begins.

April 8, 2025 — Pennsylvania Superior Court files memorandum decision in Linde, S. v. Linde Enterprises, Inc., No. 1045 EDA 2024, affirming the Wayne County trial court’s denial of Scott Linde’s motion to amend his complaint to bring a shareholder derivative action against his brother Eric and Linde Enterprises. The decision recounts a trial court finding that Scott Linde “never intended to purchase Eric’s stock” and that his “deceptive conduct was a pretext.” The Linde family corporate litigation, which began in 1999, produces its most recent appellate ruling nine months before the data center application is filed.

December 2025 — Board requests Solicitor Jeffrey Treat begin drafting a data center ordinance.

January 5, 2026 — Clinton Township reorganization meeting. Kiley Associates submits letter of interest for township engineer position. Lisa Lopatofsky confirmed as both Treasurer and Emergency Management Coordinator. Tom Shepstone of Shepstone Management Company — a natural gas industry-funded advocate operating from Honesdale — listed as township Consultant.

February 4, 2026 — Linde VP Christopher Langel email identifies Forest City Energy Center LLC as holding an option on Linde’s Forest City parcel for a power plant. The entity has no registration in any state business registry.

February 11, 2026 — Mark Lopatofsky listed as Chair, Lisa Lopatofsky as Treasurer. LRBSA Sewer Permit Application on the meeting agenda.

April 30, 2026 — Linde Corporation files land development application. Same day, board passes six-month data center moratorium.

May 7, 2026 — Planning commission meeting draws overflow crowd. Commission votes to send proposed data center ordinance to Wayne County Planning Commission for review. That review goes to Craig Rickard’s department. Rickard sits on WEDCO’s board alongside PPL’s regional representative and the firm hired to update the township’s SALDO.

Late May 2026 — Solicitor Jeffrey Treat replaced without a public vote. Ronald M. Bugaj of Bugaj/Fischer PC, Honesdale, appointed interim solicitor.

May 29, 2026 — Bugaj’s first board meeting as interim solicitor. Advises the board the moratorium may not be legal.

June 3, 2026 — Planning commission unanimously rejects Linde’s application as incomplete, citing four deficiencies. Kimley-Horn’s Justin Moceri appears for the development team — the same engineer who offered to help Archbald Borough write its data center overlay ordinance while simultaneously representing data center developers in Archbald.

June 11, 2026 — Zefran’s Sunshine Act lawsuit filed in Wayne County Court. The Center Square reported the filing the following day, June 12. As of July 20, 2026, no hearing, ruling, or settlement has been publicly reported.

Before July 17, 2026 — Supervisors hire Barry Isett & Associates Inc. of Allentown as the township’s engineer specifically for the data center project.

July 17, 2026 — Mark Lopatofsky confronted about his son’s ownership of Kiley Associates. Admits he told only the solicitor, not the public. Linda Zefran states on the record that Linde recommended Kiley Associates to her for the sidewalk grant project. Lopatofsky resigns and leaves the meeting before it concludes.

July 30, 2026 — SALDO amendment public hearing scheduled.

August 3 and August 17, 2026 — Land development plan hearings scheduled.

August 4, 2026 — Supervisors to vote on meeting rules, including 3-minute public comment limit.

IX. THE CORPORATE AND INSTITUTIONAL MAP

Linde Corporation (PA #588121): Scott Linde, President. 118 Armstrong Road, Pittston. UGI Certified contractor. Developer of the 682-acre data center campus proposal.

Linde Construction (PA #2719682): Scott Linde. Golf Hill Road, Honesdale.

Leeward Construction / E.R. Linde Construction Corporation: Gary F. Linde (Scott’s brother). 239 Golf Hill Road, Honesdale. Previously did road work for Clinton Township. Named in the Wayne County Legal Journal alongside Linde Enterprises, Inc. in the case numbers where Bugaj represented Scott Linde (27-1999-Equity, 208-1999-Civil).

Bugaj/Fischer PC: Ronald M. Bugaj, principal. 308 9th Street, Honesdale. Former litigation counsel for Scott Linde in a family shareholder dispute running from at least 1999 through the 2010s; related litigation between the Linde siblings continued at Wayne County docket 2019-00348 through a Pennsylvania Superior Court decision in April 2025. Attended Honesdale High School with Scott Linde (Bugaj graduated 1967 per firm website, 1968 per Wayne County Bar Association); described in press as personal friend. Named interim township solicitor May 2026. Also operates Wayne County Abstract, a title insurance company at the same address, through which Bugaj has handled over 1,000 real estate closings as both attorney and title insurance closing agent.

Barry Isett & Associates Inc.: Employee-owned multi-discipline engineering firm, headquartered in Allentown, PA. Hired by Clinton Township supervisors before July 17, 2026 as the township’s engineer specifically for the data center project. No reported connection to Linde, Kimley-Horn, or Kiley Associates has been examined.

Kimley-Horn & Associates: Engineering firm that prepared the land development plans. Justin Moceri is project manager and regional practice builder. Offered to advise Archbald Borough on data center overlay ordinance language while representing data center developers in Archbald.

Kiley Associates LLC: Civil engineering firm, Lakeville/Hawley. Nicholas Lopatofsky confirmed as co-owner at July 17, 2026 meeting. Previously recommended to a Clinton Township resident by Linde Corporation. Submitted letter of interest for township engineer position January 5, 2026 — while Mark Lopatofsky was township chairman and Lisa Lopatofsky was township treasurer.

Woodland Design Associates (Michael Wood, Honesdale): Hired in June 2020 to update Clinton Township SALDO for $7,500. Update never completed. Wood is a WEDCO board member.

Shepstone Management Company (Tom Shepstone, 100 Fourth Street, Honesdale): Listed as Clinton Township “Consultant” on January 5, 2026 reorganization agenda. Operator of NaturalGasNow.org, funded by undisclosed fossil fuel industry members. Former Energy in Depth staffer. Has prepared SALDO documents for Wayne County townships and consulted for Wayne County Commissioners.

Forest City Energy Center LLC (800 Town and Country Blvd, Suite 500, Houston TX 77024 — Spaces coworking facility): Named in Langel email as entity holding option on 811-acre Forest City parcel for a power plant. No business registration found in any searched state.

Named utility providers in the development plans: Pennsylvania American Water (water supply); Lackawanna River Basin Sewer Authority (sewer); PPL Electric Utilities (power); UGI Utilities (natural gas). Linde Corporation is a certified UGI contractor. PPL’s Regional Affairs Director sits on WEDCO’s board. UGI is a WEDCO Promoter’s Club Member. Every surrounding household draws its water from a private well; the data center campus would be served by PA American Water.

WEDCO — Wayne Economic Development Corporation: Board includes Craig Rickard (Wayne County Planning Director), Alana Roberts (Regional Affairs Director, PPL Electric Utilities — on the board in her professional capacity as PPL’s regional government relations representative), Michael Wood (Woodland Design Associates), Brian Smith (Wayne County Commissioner), and others. UGI is a Promoter’s Club Member. Organizational purpose: attract industrial investment to Wayne County.

Wayne County Planning Commission: Nine-member volunteer board, appointed by county commissioners. Directed by Craig Rickard. Reviews municipal ordinance referrals, including the Clinton Township data center ordinance sent in May 2026.

Wayne County Commissioners: Brian Smith (R, since 2008) — WEDCO board member, married Amy Rickard, created Wayne Tomorrow initiative; Jocelyn Cramer (D) — sustainable energy background, voted against 2024 Comprehensive Plan update; James Shook (R, since December 2022) — small business operator, no documented connection to entities in this web.

X. UNREPORTED FACTS

1. Tom Shepstone as township planning consultant. The Clinton Township “Consultant” listed on the January 5, 2026 reorganization agenda is a fossil fuel industry-funded advocate whose donors he refuses to disclose. He operates from the same county seat as Bugaj, Linde Construction, and Woodland Design. His firm previously prepared SALDO documents for Wayne County municipalities and consulted for Wayne County Commissioners. He was in the planning consultant role at the moment the township was deciding whether to pursue zoning, complete the SALDO update, or take no regulatory action.

2. The WEDCO board as conflict map. The county planning director who reviews Clinton Township’s data center ordinance sits on the same economic development board as PPL’s regional representative, the engineering firm that was paid to update the township’s SALDO and didn’t, and the county commissioner who publicly lamented Wayne County’s lack of natural gas drilling. UGI — one of two utility providers in the Linde plans, and a company Linde is certified to work for — pays to sponsor WEDCO’s county marketing program. No outlet has reported this web of relationships.

3. The Rickard family is embedded in Wayne County government. An older Wayne County Planning Department staff biography for Craig E. Rickard states that he “resides in Texas Township with his wife Kim.” Kim Rickard served as the Wayne Tomorrow! Community Network Specialist — a county government position, reporting to the commissioners’ office, that administers the initiative Commissioner Brian Smith founded. The county planning director who reviews the Clinton Township data center ordinance is married to a woman who was employed by the county in a program created and overseen by the commissioner who sits beside her husband on WEDCO’s board.

The more recent version of Craig Rickard’s county biography — the one cited in the 2025 Wayne County Planning Commission Annual Report — says he resides in Texas Township “with his son Ethan” and enjoys working on his family farm. It names the son. It does not name a wife. Whether this reflects a change in marital status or simply a shorter bio format is not established.

Commissioner Smith married the former Amy Rickard in 1985. Whether Amy Rickard is related to Craig Rickard — making Smith and the county planning director in-laws — has not been established in the public record. That remains an open question. At Craig Rickard’s 35-year county anniversary in January 2026, Commissioner Smith personally praised him in the meeting minutes, telling him he “has done a lot of good things for the County.” Catherine Jane Rickard was elected Wayne County auditor in 2023. John Rickard, Jr. serves as a supervisor of Cherry Ridge Township, Wayne County.

A sixth Rickard now appears in the public record on this story: Thane Rickard, described in the Center Square’s June 12, 2026 coverage as “an engineer by profession” and a member of the Save Browndale Mountain opposition group, who characterized the data center proposal as “predatory.” Thane Rickard’s LinkedIn profile lists him at Mactac North America with a location of 18472 — the zip code covering Waymart and parts of Clinton Township itself. He lives in or immediately adjacent to the township where the data center is proposed. No outlet has asked whether Thane Rickard is related to Craig Rickard or to Amy Rickard Smith. Whether the six Rickards in Wayne County public life are one family or several unrelated families sharing a common surname in a county of 51,000 people is a question that one phone call to any of them would resolve.

4. Woodland Design’s SALDO contract. The township voted in June 2020 to hire Woodland Design to update the 2008 SALDO for $7,500. The SALDO was still listed as “last updated 2008” when Linde filed in April 2026. The outcome of that contract — whether the work was performed, whether it was completed and rejected, whether it was cancelled — has not been reported. Michael Wood of Woodland Design simultaneously served on the WEDCO board throughout this period.

5. The ghost entity’s Houston address is a coworking space. Suite 500 at 800 Town and Country Boulevard is Spaces CityCentre One, a flexible-office operator that rents desk space and conference rooms. Forest City Energy Center LLC listed it as its principal place of business in a document submitted to a township planning commission. The entity has no registration in any state.

6. Kimley-Horn’s Justin Moceri pattern. The Kimley-Horn engineer who appeared for Linde at the June 3 Clinton Township planning commission meeting is the same engineer who offered to advise Archbald Borough on writing its data center overlay ordinance — while simultaneously representing data center developers seeking approvals in Archbald. This conflict-of-practice pattern has not been connected to the Clinton Township story.

7. The 3-minute comment limit. Supervisors Brian Non and Brad Bates — the two who remained after Lopatofsky’s resignation — have proposed limiting public comment to 3 minutes at meetings. The vote is scheduled for August 4, the day after the first land development plan hearing. Every prior meeting on this project has drawn 150 to 200 residents.

8. The November 2019 zoning vote. The full board voted unanimously to start the zoning process three months before Scott Linde’s February 2020 appearance. No subsequent minutes reference the effort. What killed it has not been reported.

9. The Clean and Green rollback taxes. The Linde parcel is enrolled in Clean and Green. Conversion to industrial use triggers rollback taxes on up to seven years of the gap between preferential and market-rate assessment on 682 acres. No reporting has quantified this.

10. The PJM queue absence. No interconnection application for any power generation project has been filed with PJM Interconnection for Wayne County. The development plans reference a PJM interconnection.

11. Leeward Construction’s road work. Gary F. Linde’s company previously did road work for Clinton Township, per the June 2020 minutes. Scott Linde’s family had an existing township business relationship before the data center application arrived.

12. The Browndale Sidewalk Project Linde-Kiley recommendation. Linda Zefran testified that Linde recommended Kiley Associates to her for the sidewalk grant project — a project appearing in Clinton Township minutes going back to December 2018. If the recommendation was made then, the Linde-Kiley relationship predates the January 2026 letter of interest by at least six years. The precise timing has not been confirmed.

13. The Linde family litigation was still generating appellate decisions nine months before the data center application. The Pennsylvania Superior Court filed a memorandum decision on April 8, 2025 — Linde, S. v. Linde Enterprises, Inc., No. 1045 EDA 2024 — affirming the Wayne County Court of Common Pleas’ denial of Scott Linde’s attempt to amend his complaint against his brother Eric and Linde Enterprises, Inc. The underlying case at docket 2019-00348 went to trial in 2021–2022, was appealed in 2022, remanded in 2023, and decided again on appeal in April 2025. The 2025 decision recounts a finding that Scott Linde “never intended to purchase Eric’s stock in LEI as per the terms of the Agreement” and that his “deceptive conduct was a pretext to avoid Eric’s 1999 derivative action.” The waiver describing Bugaj’s prior representation of Scott Linde as involving “various matters unrelated to the subject of this waiver” does not name these cases. No outlet has connected the April 2025 decision to the solicitor appointment or the data center story.

14. The waiver’s conflict categories match the application’s regulatory exposure. The “disclosure of potential conflicts” section in the Joint Waiver lists areas where conflicts could arise: zoning, traffic, environmental, utility, and public safety concerns. These categories are standard in municipal conflict waivers. They also happen to describe exactly the five domains at issue in a land development application for a 20-building industrial campus with two natural gas power plants and nearly a million gallons of daily water demand on exceptional-value wetlands.

15. Barry Isett & Associates was hired as the township’s data center engineer — and no one has examined how. Before Lopatofsky’s resignation, supervisors hired Barry Isett & Associates Inc. to serve as the township’s engineer specifically for the data center project. Isett is a major multi-discipline firm headquartered in Allentown. Who recommended the firm, when the hire was made, and whether any relationship exists between Isett and Linde, Kimley-Horn, or any other entity in this web has not been reported.

16. Wayne County Abstract is not a subsidiary — it is Bugaj’s own title company at the same address. Bugaj/Fischer PC’s website and Wayne County Abstract’s website both confirm the title insurance company operates at 308 9th Street, Honesdale — the same suite as the law firm. Bugaj personally has handled over 1,000 closings as both attorney and closing agent. In a county with a small pool of title abstractors, whether Bugaj’s own title company touched any deed or mortgage work on the Linde parcels is answerable through a single records request to the Wayne County Recorder of Deeds.

17. Linde Corporation is a dues-paying WEDCO Sustaining Member. Beyond UGI and PPL’s institutional presence on WEDCO, the developer itself belongs to the organization. WEDCO’s member directory lists Linde Corporation at the “Sustaining” membership level, with treasurer Bob Hessling as contact and VP Christopher Langel’s email as the point of contact. The company whose project is subject to county planning review pays to belong to the county economic development body on whose board the planning director sits. No outlet has reported this.

18. The board’s own 2018 conflict standard. At a September 2018 meeting, the board made a paving contract award conditional on the solicitor and the state township association confirming no conflict existed, after a resident raised concern that the township engineer worked for the low bidder. The engineer resigned rather than proceed. The same board later took no comparable step when the developer’s personal friend became solicitor, the chairman’s son’s firm sought the engineer contract, or the developer’s affiliated family company continued doing township road work. The contrast is documented in the township’s own minutes and has not been reported.

XI. WHAT REMAINS UNANSWERED

Who is behind Forest City Energy Center LLC? The LRBSA application records may name the principals. No journalist or public official has identified them.

Is Commissioner Smith related to Craig Rickard through Amy Rickard? Kim Rickard is confirmed as Craig Rickard’s wife through an older version of his county staff biography. That connection — county planning director married to a woman employed in a county position created by and reporting to Commissioner Smith — is documented and has not been reported. The remaining open question is whether Amy Rickard, whom Smith married in 1985, is Craig Rickard’s sister, cousin, or otherwise related. If so, Smith and the county planning director who reviews the Clinton Township data center ordinance are in-laws, and Smith appointed his sister-in-law to administer his signature economic development program. That question can be resolved with a single inquiry to any of the parties involved.

Who is Thane Rickard? A sixth Rickard in Wayne County public life — an engineer, a member of Save Browndale Mountain, living in zip code 18472 (Waymart / Clinton Township area), working at Mactac North America’s Scranton-area facility. No outlet has asked whether he is related to Craig Rickard or Amy Rickard Smith.

What happened to the November 2019 zoning initiative? The full board voted yes. No subsequent minutes reference it. What killed it?

What happened to the Woodland Design SALDO contract? The township paid for an update. The 2008 SALDO governed Linde’s application 2026. What became of the work?

What was Jeffrey Treat’s prior legal work for Scott Linde? The stated reason for his removal was “concerns about prior legal work performed for Scott Linde.” The nature of that work remains unreported. Treat practiced real estate law from 926 Court Street, Honesdale — a few blocks from Bugaj’s office. In a county this small, the same attorneys regularly appear on opposite sides of the same transactions.

Did Bugaj represent Scott Linde in the 2019–2025 litigation? The Pennsylvania Superior Court’s April 2025 decision in Linde, S. v. Linde Enterprises, Inc. (docket 2019-00348) does not name the attorneys of record. The Wayne County Court of Common Pleas docket sheet would. If Bugaj was still representing Scott Linde in active litigation as recently as 2024 or 2025, the waiver’s characterization of his prior representation as “various matters unrelated” to the current situation takes on a different weight.

Was Kiley Associates formally appointed as township engineer? The January 5, 2026 agenda notes only a letter of interest. Whether a vote was taken, and whether any Lopatofsky recused themselves, is not in the public record.

What are the Clean and Green rollback tax implications? The difference between preferential and market-rate assessment on 682 acres, multiplied by up to seven years, across school district, municipality, and county, could be substantial.

Did Wayne County Abstract handle title work on the Linde parcels? Wayne County Abstract is not a subsidiary — it is Bugaj/Fischer’s own title company, operating from the same address, with Bugaj personally handling closings. Over 1,000 closings in Wayne and Pike Counties. The Wayne County Recorder of Deeds office would show whether any deed, mortgage, or title insurance policy on the Linde parcels passed through Bugaj’s operation.

Who recommended Barry Isett & Associates to the township? The firm was hired as the township’s engineer specifically for the data center project before Lopatofsky resigned. Whether the recommendation came from Bugaj, Supervisor Non, Kimley-Horn, or the development team itself has not been asked.

What is the status of the Zefran Sunshine Act lawsuit? Former supervisor James Zefran filed the complaint in Wayne County Court on or about June 11, 2026, alleging the solicitor replacement violated the state’s open meetings law. The Center Square reported it the following day. No hearing date, ruling, or settlement has been reported. As of July 20, 2026, the case appears to be pending.

What did Tom Shepstone do as Clinton Township’s consultant? His role on the January 5, 2026 reorganization agenda is listed without description. Whether he advised on the SALDO, on zoning decisions, or on the data center ordinance process has not been reported.

When exactly did Linde recommend Kiley Associates to Linda Zefran? If that recommendation was made during the 2018–2019 sidewalk project, the Linde-Kiley relationship is documented years before the current application.

XII. PRIMARY SOURCE INDEX

Clinton Township Meeting Minutes (waynecountypa.gov): September 2018 (Document Center View/2345 — Weinberger resignation, Wayco/E.R. Linde bidding); December 12, 2018; November 13, 2019; February 12, 2020; June 10, 2020; August 11, 2021; April 26, 2021; September 13, 2023; March 13, 2024; August 14, 2024; September 11, 2024; January 5, 2026 (reorganization agenda); February 11, 2026 (regular meeting agenda).

Wayne County Legal Journal: July 19, 2013 (Bugaj as defense counsel for Scott Linde).

Wayne County Commissioners Meeting Minutes: March 12, 2020; August 13, 2020; February 22, 2024; February 27, 2025; January 8, 2026.

WEDCO Board of Directors: wayneeconomic.com/index.php/home/board-of-directors.

WEDCO Member Directory: wayneeconomic.com/index.php/construction/linde-corporation (Linde Corporation, “Sustaining” membership level, contact Bob Hessling, email clangel@lindeco.com).

Wayne County Planning Commission 2025 Annual Report: waynepikenews.com/entirereport2025.pdf.

Wayne County Planning Commission Meeting Agenda, May 12, 2026: waynecountypa.gov.

Wayne County Governmental Department Listing: waynecountypa.gov/DocumentCenter/View/932 (Kim Rickard, Community Network Specialist, Wayne Tomorrow!).

Wayne County Planning Commission Staff Bios: waynecountypa.gov/DocumentCenter/View/7321 (Craig Rickard bio, current version: “resides in Texas Township with his son Ethan”); older version of same bio: “resides in Texas Township with his wife Kim.”

Happenings Magazine: March 2022 (Alana Roberts, Regional Affairs Director, PPL Electric Utilities).

Wayne County Commissioner Bios: waynecountypa.gov (Brian Smith, Jocelyn Cramer, James Shook).

CCAP Commissioner of the Year: The River Reporter, August 22, 2025.

WVIA: July 17, 2026, “Supervisor resigns in Clinton Twp. as residents question ties to data center developer.”

The Center Square: June 12, 2026, “Township facing data center proposal shaken by transparency, conflict questions.”

The River Reporter: May 11, 2026; May 20, 2026; May 28, 2026.

Radio Catskill/WJFF: May 29, 2026; June 4, 2026; June 11, 2026.

Keystone Newsroom: June 10, 2026 (detailed description of development plans; note: article states 18,000 sq ft per building, which conflicts with the 118,000 sq ft stated in the plans themselves and confirmed by multiple other sources — appears to be a typographical error in the Keystone piece).

Clinton Township website (clintontwpwayne.com): Revised development plans posted June 2026; SALDO amendment drafts; meeting schedules and agendas.

Linde Corporation Land Development Plans (April 30, 2026): Obtained via RTK filed by The River Reporter. Names utility providers as Pennsylvania American Water (water), LRBSA (sewer), PPL Electric (power), UGI (gas). Describes 20 data center buildings at 118,000 sq ft each, two natural gas generation facilities, 682-acre campus. Plans prepared by Kimley-Horn & Associates.

WNEP: June 1, 2026; May 13, 2026.

DeSmog: September 18, 2015 (Tom Shepstone/NaturalGasNow); March 11, 2026 (Kimley-Horn/Justin Moceri/Archbald).

Honesdale Borough: Council Minutes, April 25, 2022; Planning Commission Annual Report 2024.

Woodland Design Associates: woodlanddesign.com; WEDCO member listing.

Shepstone Management Company: shepstone.net; Alignable profile.

Linde Corporation website: lindeco.com (UGI Certified designation; Scott Linde biography via thebluebook.com/iProView; company history page).

WHYY: August 18, 2011, “Pa. company booms from fracking-related business” (Linde workforce and revenue figures).

Pennsylvania Superior Court: Linde, S. v. Linde Enterprises, Inc., No. 1045 EDA 2024 (Memorandum filed April 8, 2025), available at law.justia.com. Appeal from Wayne County Court of Common Pleas, docket 2019-00348. See also Linde v. Linde Enterprises, Inc., No. 2212 EDA 2022 (Pa. Super. Nov. 9, 2023) (prior appeal in same litigation); Linde v. Linde Enterprises, Inc. (Pa. Super. 2015), FindLaw (earlier phase, docket 18-CV-2013).

Wayne County Bar Association: Attorney biography of Ronald M. Bugaj (waynecountypalawyers.com).

Wayne County Abstract Company: waynecountyabstract.com (Bugaj biography, closing history).

Bugaj/Fischer PC: bugaj-fischer-law.com (firm description, Wayne County Abstract reference).

PA Department of State: Linde Corporation (#588121); Linde Construction (#2719682); Linde & Atcavage Partnership (#4001042).

PJM Interconnection Queue: Wayne County, PA — zero active gas or data center projects.

Damascus Citizens for Sustainability: May 7, 2026.

Camp Freedom Inc.: campfreedompa.org.

LoopNet / Crexi / commercial real estate records: 800 Town and Country Blvd, Houston TX 77024 (Spaces CityCentre One).

This investigation was conducted using exclusively open-source, publicly available records. No Right to Know requests were filed by Pocono Review for this report. The two RTK-obtained document sets cited herein — Linde Corporation’s land development plans (obtained by The River Reporter) and the Joint Waiver of Conflict of Interest (obtained by The Center Square) — were obtained by those outlets and are referenced with attribution throughout.

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