Numerous Lansford residents pointed out buildings in disrepair or falling down, and properties with overgrown grass, weeds or hedges during Wednesday’s council meeting.

One suggested taking the new code enforcement officer through town and showing him the issues street by street.

“He’s going to have a lot of ground to cover,” council Vice President Jay Doyle said.

Last week, council hired Shane Monk of Tamaqua as its new code enforcement officer. He is expected to start as soon as his background check is completed.

Council on Wednesday changed his title to code and ordinance enforcement officer, which will allow him to also issue citations for both code and ordinance violations.

On the numerous complaints, councilwoman Michele Bartek told residents that there are forms in the office that people could fill out.

“It helps when everybody uses those forms,” she said.

Council’s code, zoning and ordinance committee discussed changing how the written complaints were handled in April, as the borough’s complaint forms require a resident to sign their name.

Many, especially older residents and those living alone, fear their neighbors will retaliate against them if they sign a complaint, people said during a committee meeting.

Councilman Jack Soberick, who chairs the committee, also disagreed with the signed form. He believed people should be able to provide tips, much like providing tips to police, and the code official can investigate them.

A discussion of code complaint methods was on council’s agenda for Wednesday night’s meeting, but there was no discussion in Soberick’s absence.

Also, skipped over was a discussion about “reviewing nuisance claims against dilapidated properties.”

Soberick, contacted on Thursday, said that he had other commitments that unfortunately took precedence over attending the meeting.

Property cleanup

Council members did discuss hiring a lawn service or similar company to provide lawn or yard maintenance where the homeowner isn’t keeping up the property and allowing high vegetation.

This was also a matter raised by Soberick’s committee.

Councilman Joseph Butrie was wondering who would be liable if a worker got hurt, and council President Bruce Markovich said it would go to the lawn service’s workers’ compensation.

Bartek asked if the bill for the cleanup would go to the property owner, and Markovich said that the borough would pay the bill, and then collect from the property owner.

“Summit Hill has done that for years, and they’ve had a lot of success with it,” Bartek said, and asked if council would be voting on this.

Markovich asked if they could vote on it, as it was listed on the agenda for discussion. Solicitor Robert Yurchak said they could move on developing specifications for this work and then advertise those specs.

Councilwoman Gwyneth Collevechio said she didn’t understand what they were talking about, as this involves hiring someone to go onto someone else property, and other council members and the solicitor said the borough can do this under the property maintenance code.

Council approved developing specs and then advertising for a lawn service or residential cleanup service for the borough.

Bad properties

Resident Joe Genits circled back to the undiscussed agenda item, regarding claims against dilapidated properties.

He suggested council look at the 10 worst properties in Lansford, and have the solicitor file claims against the properties in Carbon County Court to correct those violations.

“Unfortunately, your chair is not here tonight, but I know it was discussed,” he said.

Genits previously mentioned filing claims in county court against property owners who aren’t complying with notice of violations or fines at the district court level and buying time, as the properties become more dilapidated.

One such property is 118 W. Ridge St., which just collapsed into a vacant yard, and that was condemned in 2017, he said. Another is the former Silver’s building on East Ridge Street.

Yurchak suggested council refer the matter back to the committee to come up with a list of 10 properties, and authorize action at next month’s meeting, rather than continue a protracted discussion and prolong the meeting.

Council ended discussion on the matter.

The code, zoning and ordinance committee’s last meeting before a summer hiatus was May. Meetings are scheduled to resume in September.