Lansford Borough Council wants a meeting with county commissioners after not being able to oppose a tax sale of condemned property it planned to raze.

Council President Bruce Markovich said the borough planned to raze 334 W. Bertsch St. using Community Development Block Grant funding from the county, but someone bid on the property at a recent tax sale.

The borough solicitor attended a hearing opposing the sale before Judge Joseph Matika last month. The judge couldn’t overturn the sale and suggested the borough look to move the grant money to another project, Solicitor Robert Yurchak said in an email to the borough.

The judge allowed the borough time to investigate moving the funds to another project, Markovich reported. However, the borough hasn’t heard back from county planning on whether it can do that, he said.

“This last round of upset sale, people put in bids on every building we have scheduled to tear down,” Markovich said prior to council’s committee meetings on Tuesday night.

The other buildings include 151-151½ W. Ridge St., which the borough closed a portion of a street last year due to a building buckling and 316 W. Patterson St., which two people bid on at a tax sale, he said.

“Someone even put a bid in on 614 W. Patterson St., which we tore down three years ago,” he said.

Another issue, Markovich said, is the borough has grants from the county to tear down these properties going back to 2021.

“Nothing has been done yet,” he said. “It’s all in the hands of the county.”

Markovich pointed to Lehighton moving forward with a demolition project of a North First Street property, which he said they started last year.

“They’re already tearing it down,” he said. “ (316 W. Patterson) has been on the list since 2021. The county has not moved on that. All our paperwork is done. Everything is up to date on our end.”

Borough officials plan to meet with the county commissioners to talk about these concerns, and see if there is any way to prevent buildings scheduled for demolition from being sold, Markovich said.

After the meeting, Markovich said he even advised the person bidding on the 151 W. Ridge St. property that the floors were gone from inside, and the person bid on the property anyway.

The bidder then called the borough to see if there was money available to fix the building, Markovich said.

He believes the borough can oppose the county upset sales, but not a tax claim sale. The West Bertsch Street was a tax claim sale, while the others were upset sales, Markovich said.

“We can’t stop a tax claim sale, even though the county gave us a grant to tear it down,” he said.