A Schuylkill County towing company is suing the Borough of Mahanoy City, its Borough Manager, Chief of Police and the principals of a competitor company for conspiring to keep his company off a towing rotation there.
Northern Keystone Towing and Recovery LLC says in an 18-page federal civil lawsuit filed this week that Mahanoy City, Borough Manager John Fatula, Police Chief Thomas Rentschler, and Steve’s Towing principal owners Steven Slavinsky and Adam Slavinsky are intentionally working in cahoots to keep his company from getting any towing business from the Borough.
The lawsuit alleges through a detailed timeline how Mahanoy City approved Northern Keystone to appear on the Borough’s towing rotation twice and then by “moving goal posts” and conspiracy kept it from getting any business there.
Northern Keystone is seeking relief by being allowed on to the Borough’s towing rotation once again, it being followed per the letter of Mahanoy City’s ordinances, and for monetary relief from lost revenue and costly investments made to comply with the Borough’s ever-changing unwritten rules, the lawsuit states.
Northern Keystone v. Mahanoy City, Steve’s Towing, et al
The lawsuit filed by the towing company, Northern Keystone, alleges in a detailed timeline how it believes the conspiracy against it unfolded in Mahanoy City.
It alleges that Rentschler “failed to ensure (Northern Keystone) received equitable access to towing opportunities” and that the Police Chief and Fatula are working in league to keep Northern Keystone away from any government contract work.
“The exclusion of (Northern Keystone) is arbitrary, lacks rational basis, and violates the procedural and substantive guarantees of the Fourteenth Amendment of the US Constitution.
Here is a look at the key dates:
March 2022: Northern Keystone contacts Mahanoy City about the possibility of providing towing services to the Borough. Mahanoy City allegedly responds by saying “it would be a great benefit to (Northern Keystone) if it owned property in (the borough),” according to the suit.
Mahanoy City also allegedly requested a price sheet of Northern Keystone’s services.
Northern Keystone then assumed that it was now on the Borough towing rotation, believing it had met all the requirements spelled out in the Mahanoy City ordinance governing the rotation.
November 2022: Northern Keystone purchases a property on Vine St. in Mahanoy City. The company said it was never called by the Borough for its towing services at all in 2022.
January/February 2023: Northern Keystone CEO Nicholas Boyle attends a Mahanoy City Borough Council meeting to request his company be included in the towing rotation by seeking a vote of the council.
March 2023: Mahanoy City Borough Council members vote unanimously to include Northern Keystone in its official towing rotation. The company was allegedly told that it would be contracted for its services every other month starting in April.
April 2023: Northern Keystone tows 34 vehicles for Mahanoy City. At the end of the month, Northern Keystone towed illegally parked vehicles while the Borough conducted street sweeping.
On that one day that Northern Keystone did perform towing for Mahanoy City while it conducted street sweeping, Rentschler allegedly has a “cordial conversation” with Mckinley Spencer, who was vice president of the company at the time.
The company alleges that Adam Slavinsky, the son of Steven, of Steve’s Towing, complained to Mahanoy City that Northern Keystone should be removed from the towing rotation because it did not possess a salvor’s license. Northern Keystone further alleges that Slavinsky said it was “against the law to tow in Pennsylvania without one.”
Northern Keystone says in the lawsuit that there is no requirement to possess a salvor’s license in Pennsylvania and no such requirement is spelled out in Mahanoy City’s towing rotation ordinance.
Steve’s Towing was then given tow jobs for the rest of the month of April. And Northern Keystone alleges that Rentschler never returned any further communications from Spencer after the complaint from its competitor was filed.
May 2023: Rentschler and Fatula allegedly remove Northern Keystone from the Borough’s towing rotation in response to Slavinsky’s complaint. Northern Keystone said it was never contacted by the Borough or its officials to see if it did or did not have that salvor’s license.
The company alleges that the Police Chief and Borough Manager never told Borough Council members that they were taking this action.
June 2023: Northern Keystone president Tyler Hope attends a Mahanoy City Borough Council meeting to find out why his company was no longer getting any towing work there. Fatula allegedly told Hope that his company was removed from the rotation list because it didn’t have that salvor’s license.
July 2023: Northern Keystone says it got a salvor’s license and informed Fatula of this development. Fatula allegedly responded by saying Northern Keystone was back on the towing rotation list.
September 2023: Hope returned to Mahanoy City Borough Council at its public meeting asking why Northern Keystone hadn’t gotten any work there since Fatula said it was back on the rotation. He was told to contact Rentschler for info on the rotation, the lawsuit alleges. Fatula reportedly tells Hope he’d provide Northern Keystone with information on the tow rotation.
October 2023: Hope contacts Mahanoy City Borough Council vice president Thomas McCabe. During that call, Northern Keystone alleges that McCabe told Hope that the Police Chief and Borough Manager were now saying that the company wasn’t qualified to be on the rotation because it didn’t own a heavy tow truck.
However, like with the salvor’s license, Northern Keystone says in its suit that no one from the Borough inquired about whether it did or did not own such a vehicle. Also, the company says that Mahanoy City’s ordinance does not indicate that owning a heavy tow truck is a requirement to be on the rotation.
Once again, Northern Keystone is alleging that Rentschler and Fatula conspired with Steve’s Towing to keep it off the tow rotation and create a monopoly on that service with Mahanoy City.
November 2023: Northern Keystone’s attorney, Donald Karpowich, contacts Mahanoy City and asks that the company be placed on the towing rotation
December 2023: Fatula allegedly tells Northern Keystone that the Borough does not have a towing rotation.
The company alleges that Rentschler and Fatula took it upon themselves to get rid of the towing rotation despite a Borough Council vote earlier that year to add Northern Keystone to it.
February 2024: Northern Keystone says it purchased a heavy tow truck and informed Fatula of that fact. The Borough Manager allegedly responded by saying Mahanoy City does not have a tow rotation.
Boyle then sends a correspondence which reportedly shows Fatula admitting there was a towing rotation in Mahanoy City. Fatula allegedly responded to that by placing Northern Keystone back on the towing rotation … “a towing rotation that apparently did not exist 15 minutes earlier,” the lawsuit reads.
March 2024: Mahanoy City Borough Council once again votes to place Northern Keystone on the towing rotation. Fatula allegedly emailed Karpowich to inform him that Northern Keystone was on the rotation and that it would start in April.
April 2024: Only Steve’s Towing was used to remove illegally parked vehicles while Mahanoy City conducted street sweeping, the lawsuit alleges.
By September of that year, Northern Keystone claims in its lawsuit that it still hadn’t gotten any tow requests from Mahanoy City since it was re-included in the rotation. During that time, Boyle reportedly contacted McCabe and said the Borough’s “moving goal post” was a result of Rentschler and Fatula conspiring with Adam Slavinsky.
Northern Keystone further alleges that Mahanoy City was ghosting it when it tried to confirm its presence on the rotation.
December 2024: Mahanoy City allegedly contacted Northern Keystone to impound a vehicle. Northern Keystone said it could be at the vehicle site in 15 minutes. When that ETA was given, Mahanoy City allegedly canceled the request.
January 2025: Hope contacts McCabe to complain that the Borough was again not following the towing rotation that had twice been voted on by council members. Any calls that it could have gotten during the months it was supposed to be the primary call for Mahanoy City went to Steve’s Towing instead.
McCabe reportedly told Hope that he’d have a conversation with his fellow council members.
April 2025: Northern Keystone said it received one call from Mahanoy City to respond to the scene of a two-vehicle crash. That was the last call the company received, alleging that it was once again taken off the rotation or that it wasn’t being followed.
When a representative of Northern Keystone contacted Rentschler, the Police Chief reportedly got “hostile on the phone.”
Further, when the owner of one of those two vehicles called Northern Keystone to have their vehicle taken out of the company’s impound lot and inquire about the price to do so, the suit alleges that Rentschler heard the price and said, “That’s too much; that’ the last time they tow for us.”
By the end of April, Northern Keystone said all other work for that month went to Steve’s Towing and the company alleges that it was once again removed from the Mahanoy City rotation.
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