Lansford’s Code and Zoning Committee agreed the borough needs an in-house code enforcement officer to enforce the existing rules.

The committee, chaired by Councilman Jack Soberick, met Thursday night, taking input from residents and former borough officials for more than a half-hour before settling into discussion regarding a code officer.

The borough needs an in-house code officer to handle property maintenance issues, and the police department needs to enforce quality of life issues working with that code official, Soberick said.

‘I think we need to hire not a full-time but as needed zoning officer, separate from code,” he said.

Councilman Joseph Butrie suggested hiring a code officer working for Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and for council to determine an hourly wage between $20 and $25.

Butrie began to suggest conditions if the official carried a weapon, as suggested at the last council meeting, and Soberick, a county detective and former police chief, cut him short.

“Nope. Absolutely not,” he said. “That’s insanity to even think that.”

At the last council meeting, Council President Bruce Markovich said he believed that code officials should be armed, as in other municipalities, such as Hazleton and Hazleton.

However, neither of those communities have armed code officers, officials there confirmed with the Times News, and neither does Lehighton, which was also suggested.

Butrie then suggested that the code officer not be in the building alone, or outside of normal office hours. Soberick said this is not an independent contractor, which the borough has had in the past and treated like a borough employee.

“That’s what we did wrong,” Soberick said, pointing out that an in-house employee should be set up in the borough office.

Soberick also pointed out that the job is not “rocket science” and the person hired should be able to see a violation, such a window falling out of a house, and look things up in the code book.

“If they can get certifications on the job, I don’t think they have to have that to start with,” he said. ‘I think you just have to have somebody with some common sense.”

After the meeting, Soberick said the codes are already in place, the borough needs to find someone in-house to enforce them.