Chestnuthill Township supervisors invited a local business owner to a work session to find a way for him to purchase an abandoned property and rehabilitate it.

“I want to find a way to move forward with the township’s requirements to somehow purchase and rehabilitate the property,” said Jonathan Weber, owner of Marathon Studios Inc. in East Stroudsburg, during this week’s supervisors meeting.

Marathon Studios is a tech company that also specializes in buying properties to rehabilitate, he said.

The property in Effort has been abandoned for approximately three years. It has a modular house from the 1970s with a porch on the front. There’s an abandoned car parked near it. It might have an older septic system.

This property is one of hundreds on Monroe County’s repository sales list. The county is kind of a trustee of these properties.

Abandoned properties become part of this list so that someone cannot come in, fix it up, resell it and potentially scam the buyer.

“Buyer beware only goes so far in this township. We believe we’re on solid ethical ground,” said Supervisor Carl B. Gould II.

Weber told the supervisors that the property is in better condition than some of the other abandoned ones nearby.

The supervisors’ main concern is the condition of the septic system and its pending percolation test.

“I have partners who can help. I have done septic work before,” Weber said.

As it has been abandoned for a while, there are no taxes being paid on the property. The owners may be in Florida, according to Weber’s research.

“Unless I can buy it, it will be a blighted property that’s never going to be contributing to the tax revenue,” Weber said.

A repository sale is a last resort. If no one bought it through other kinds of sales, then it stays on the list until someone like Weber can purchase it and fix it up.

“We’re not trying to thwart your efforts to clean it up,” Gould said. “Your goal is a great one.”

He instructed Weber to call the office this week and set up a work session on a Monday in September.

The supervisors want to work with Weber to see if there is a way the township can purchase the property and then let Weber’s company do the percolation test and move forward.

“I can hopefully improve this property,” said Weber.

In other business

• The supervisors will meet at 7 p.m. on Sept. 15.

• Supervisors approved the Teamsters Local 773 union contract for 2021 through 2025.

• Supervisors thanked the Pennsylvania State Police Fern Ridge barracks for their service. A trooper shared an incidence report for June, July and August. In those three months, troopers responded to a total of 1,700 incidents in the township. This included 11 assaults, three burglaries, 44 thefts, eight drug possessions and 180 citations.