Donora Demolishing Former Fifth Street School

For more than a decade, Virginia Summers anticipated the day she could gaze across the street from her Donora home and see – nothing.

She is about to get her wish.

The borough on Thursday began demolition of the century-old building known as Fifth Street School. The structure, located at the intersection of Fifth Street and Allen Avenue, has been deteriorating for years and had become a safety issue.

“It’s been a pest,” Summers said. “… It is unsafe and everybody knows it. You could see bricks falling down. We’ve been troubling council for 10 years asking to please get it down, get it down. And I’m grateful they were finally able to make it happen.”

Read more: http://triblive.com/neighborhoods/yourmonvalley/yourmonvalleymore/8054591-74/street-borough-building#ixzz3Vb3VVDgV
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Penn Hills Wants To Step Up Code Enforcement, Cite Violators

Penn Hills officials say they plan to be more proactive in code enforcement while they wait for litigation to free up funds for additional code enforcement officers.

“The current number of code enforcement officers is not acceptable for the needs within the municipality,” Deputy Mayor Sara Kuhn said at the Dec. 22 meeting.

At a public budget hearing attended by about 60 residents, nearly every speaker asked council to include funds in the 2015 budget to increase the number of code enforcement officers.

Penn Hills resident Sandy Sikora told council that more code enforcement officers are needed to help fight blight and code violation in the municipality.

Read more: http://triblive.com/news/adminpage/7435434-74/story#ixzz3Mk2LvFog
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Residents Facing Evictions At Jenkintown High Rise

Map of Abington Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Some 200 Jenkintown residents, many of them elderly, are losing their apartments due to a dispute between local officials and the property owner.

“We’re the pawns in this,” said Marshall Jones, 93. “[The owner] is saying, ‘If you won’t do it our way, we’ll just close it down.’ ”

Jones has lived in the Colonade high-rise apartments on Old York Road, in the Jenkintown section of Abington Township, for 16 years. He and other residents have had a string of complaints about leaks, electrical outages, broken elevators, cold water, broken heaters, and other issues, many of which ended up in the courts.

In 2012, the building was cited for more than 200 code violations, and the township’s solicitor was “looking into criminal charges,” according to an Inquirer report.

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20140904_Residents_facing_evictions_at_Jenkintown_high_rise.html#FfYzbjqVDIYStHix.99

Judge Gives South Hills Landlord 30 Days For Tenant Relocation Proposal

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Allegheny County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A landlord facing an avalanche of building and health code violations for a row of town houses and a neighboring apartment complex in Carrick will have until the end of the month to clear out the remaining tenants before his next appearance in front of a local judge.

Davin Gartley of Mt. Lebanon has been cited repeatedly since October for problems related to lead paint, sewage, trash, lack of running water and more.

The continuance Magisterial District Judge Richard G. King granted June 26 required Mr. Gartley to come up with a “good faith” relocation plan for the tenants living in three apartment buildings at 2531-2539 Brownsville Road in exchange for the possibility of reduced fines, said Jim Thompson, deputy director of environmental health for the Allegheny County Health Department.

“We were surprised. This has been a long, ongoing case,” Mr. Thompson said. “Granting another 30 days, with this landlord being so difficult, we’re not sure exactly what that will accomplish.”

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/local/south/2014/07/14/Judge-gives-South-Hills-landlord-30-days-for-tenant-relocation-proposal/stories/201407140044#ixzz37SYJI2Nh

Children Found Unsupervised In Hazleton Home

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Luzerne County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Editor’s note:  At least in some municipalities in Pennsylvania (unlike Pottstown) buildings are condemned for unsanitary living conditions.  In Pottstown, they look the other way….716 Adams Street, for example.  Maybe the Hazleton Codes Department does field trips???

Hazleton police checking on the welfare of children Tuesday afternoon found five unsupervised children living in an apartment with cockroaches and no smoke alarms, city and law enforcement officials said.

Police said they were dispatched to 197 S. Wyoming St. about 1:30 p.m. to assist Hazleton Area School District with the welfare check.  Inside the apartment, police found five children younger than 10 alone.  Police said Tuesday it was unclear why and how long the children were home alone. Those issues would be investigated by Luzerne County Children and Youth Services.

Their father, Freddy Colon, later arrived at the home, police wrote.

City code and health officials were called to investigate the conditions, ultimately condemning the apartment.

Read more:  http://standardspeaker.com/news/children-found-unsupervised-in-hazleton-home-1.1485832

Harrisburg Neighborhood Safety Zone Program Nabs 16 Guns, Cites Over 150 Code Violations

HARRISBURG — Police confiscated a gun, wrote nine traffic tickets and issued 100 citations for property code violations during the third phase of the capital city’s Neighborhood Safe Zone initiative.

The eight-day crackdown on crime targeted North Sixth Street between Radnor and Woodbine streets, and along North Fourth Street from Radnor to Jefferson streets, Mayor Linda Thompson said.

Thompson spoke during a news conference Tuesday to provide an update on the NSZ program launched two months ago.

Modeled after initiatives in Baltimore and Washington, D.C., the program increases enforcement in specific areas for a brief duration: police crack down on crime, then code enforcement officers survey properties for violations — resulting in everything from littering citations to deeming structures unfit for human habitation — and illegal dumping.

Read more:  http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2013/04/harrisburg_neighborhood_safety.html#incart_m-rpt-2

Cherry Hill Proposes New Regulations On Abandoned Houses

Census Bureau map of Cherry Hill Township, New Jersey (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Whenever John Aponik cuts the grass, bits of blue tarp get caught in the blades of his lawn mower.

Around Christmas, “it gets in all the wreaths,” Aponik said of the tarp that has been shredding off the house next door to his on Glen Lane in Cherry Hill, where a renovation project was abandoned four years ago.

No one has lived in the house since then, Aponik said, although it isn’t exactly vacant. “Raccoons, possums – cats were breeding out there,” Aponik said, who has set traps lent to him by a neighbor.

He’s also written letters to the mayor’s office and repeatedly called a contractor employed by mortgage companies, but the problems remain: The township doesn’t own the property.

Read more:  http://www.philly.com/philly/news/new_jersey/20130422_Cherry_Hill_proposes_new_regulations_on_abandoned_houses.html

Hazleton Police Chief Warns Business Owners To Get Their Licenses

Downtown Hazleton, PA (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Editor’s note:  Kickin’ ass and takin’ names in Hazleton!  Booya!

Police Chief Frank DeAndrea is giving a warning out to businesses operating in Hazleton to have their licenses and make sure that they are in conformity to the city’s codes.

The Hazleton Police Department is going to work in unison with the city’s fire, health, code enforcement, and highway departments in a new city-wide initiative called “Operation Clean Street.”

Set to begin in a week or two, the initiative will pull all of the departments’ resources in an effort to beautify the city’s streets and crack down on delinquent businesses.

According to DeAndrea, the operation will begin at the intersection of Diamond Avenue and Wyoming Street in which the fire department will bring a truck in to hose down and wash all debris from the streets and sidewalks.

Read more:  http://standardspeaker.com/news/hazleton-police-chief-warns-business-owners-to-get-their-licenses-1.1469241

Officials Look To Shutter Lancaster City Hotel

Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Lancaster County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Lancaster city officials are seeking to have the Hotel Brunswick shut down on the grounds that it is a nuisance.

The city filed a complaint in Lancaster County Court Monday laying out its case, citing numerous police calls, code violations and failure to pay taxes.

Also on Monday, a county judge granted a separate request by city and county officials to temporarily halt the sale of alcohol at the hotel.

“The premises as currently being operated and maintained has become a public nuisance,” Mayor Rick Gray said Monday. “We have an obligation to the residents of the City of Lancaster and visitors to the city.”

Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/717718_Officials-look-to-shutter-Lancaster-city-hotel.html#ixzz24D9oYLMi

Reading Mayor Tags Along With Quality-Of-Life Inspectors

A 1947 topographic map of the Reading, Pennsylvania area. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Mayor Vaughn D. Spencer tailed Reading’s quality-of-life inspectors Thursday along West Douglass Street to learn how they determine whether properties are violating city regulations on such items as high grass or trash buildup.

City inspectors issued 46 citations for conditions including improper trash receptacles, weeds, litter and other violations during the sweep through the neighborhoods around the 100 block of West Douglass.

“And that was just the two to three hours that they were out there this morning,” said Marisol Torres, assistant to the mayor.

Read more: http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=378189

Pottstown Citizens Plan Protest Again Slumlords For Friday

Are you a Pottstown borough resident?

Are you sick of slumlords not paying their water/sewer/trash bills?

Are you sick of slumlords renting to anybody that breathes and can pay their rent (not doing criminal background checks)?

Are you ready to make a statement that Pottstown residents are ready to take back their town?

If so, a group is gathering tomorrow, Friday, August 26th at 5:30 pm in the 400 block of King Street, between Franklin and Washington Sts.  This event is for anyone who is ready to say ENOUGH!  There will be a press conference and protest to demand that these deadbeats pay up or get the hell out of Pottstown! 

Feel free to bring your picket signs!

Pottstown’s New Citizen Codes Inspector Program

Quality of Life improvements in the Borough of Pottstown are high on the agenda these days.  Improving the experience of living in Pottstown is a key element in the revitalization process.  To that end, the Borough Manager found a program that tackles a long-standing problem here in Pottstown – codes!  Blighted properties and abuses by absentee landlords have plagued our town for decades.  In order to clean up the mess and make Pottstown more attractive to current residents, prospective residents and commercial/business interests, our Codes Department needs more bodies on the streets.

The Citizen Codes Inspector Program takes borough residents, in good standing, and trains them to assist the Codes Department personnel by identifying and reporting code violations.  Here is a partial list of the qualifications for a Citizen Code Inspector:

-Residency in the borough

-General good health

-Reading/writing/comprehension capabilities

-No outstanding violations/citations with the Borough of Pottstown in areas of parking, legal, codes, water, sewer, trash or taxes.

-Good communication skills

-Ability/desire to walk some distance on borough streets and alleyways

The Borough Manager and the Codes Department personnel will be responsible for selecting those individuals who have applied for these positions.

The Citizen Codes Inspector is a volunteer (unpaid) position.  The goal is to find borough residents who wish to become involved and make a difference in the community by volunteering their time to assist the Codes Department.  Programs similar to this are already in place in other municipalities in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and have been very successful.  The Borough Manager researched this program thoroughly before recommending it to Pottstown Borough Council for approval.

The training program will last four weeks and require about 7 hours to complete.  The first phase is 2-4 hours of classroom training and the second phase is 2-3 hours of field experience with a Codes Department employee.  During phase two (field experience) the trainee will practice writing up reports and have them reviewed by their Codes Department trainer.

The third phase is a debriefing and group session to do a final review and answer questions.

Safety of the Citizen Codes Inspector is paramount and there are systems in place to ensure this.  Citizen Inspectors will be given identification and some sort of apparel to help identify them.  The Pottstown Police Department will be made aware when these inspections are taking place.  Citizen Inspectors will not enter private property.  Inspections will be made from the public right-of-way to minimize any confrontations between the Citizen Inspectors and property owners.

If you live in the Borough of Pottstown and would like to volunteer your time to make a difference, click on the link below.  You can read the entire article I have summarized and fill out an application to become a Citizen Codes Inspector.

http://www.pottstown.org/PDF/forms/citizen-codes-inspector-application.pdf

Many thanks to Jason Bobst, Pottstown Borough Manager, for finding a creative solution to a big problem that does not require raising taxes or adding staff!