Lansford Borough Council is considering a Pottsville firm for code enforcement and rental inspections.

Ed Wenger of Lehigh Engineering spoke to council members Tuesday night about the services his firm could offer.

Lehigh Engineering is a civil engineering and consulting engineering firm and Wenger noted he has experience with small municipalities as well as county service.

The borough has some 740 rental units requiring inspection every two years under the borough rules, and council said that would be an important area of focus.

Wenger explained he has read the borough’s rental ordinance, and it’s one of the better ones because it requires out-of-town property owners to have a local agent.

With inspections, he requires a property owner or agent to be present because it facilitates communications on items that need to be taken care of and protects him from allegations, such as missing items.

Wenger also employs a two-part carbon copy inspection report, which the owner or agent signs, and that serves as their notice to correct deficiencies.

The borough would handle mailing the requests for registration, and his firm can prepare those documents for the borough, using a spreadsheet program, and then the borough only needs to mail them out and then notify his firm when it has received a check for the registration.

Wenger would then take over the process, contacting the owner, scheduling the inspection, doing the inspection, scanning the report and emailing the borough with a copy to have on file, he said.

“So you guys have an idea of what’s going on with that property, whether they passed or if there were concerns and when they can expect to have those concerns resolved,” he said.

Wenger said that he had discussed a rate of $83, and that may be increasing a few dollars. He said that he typically bills at an hourly rate, and inspections generally take 45 minutes to an hour.

He would also want to bundle inspections with buildings with multiple units at the same time, and possibly do multiple inspections one day a week to save trips to town, but would be available for emergent needs, he said.

Wenger not only is computer literate, one of council concerns, but said that he designed the program that the company uses which makes the process more efficient.

“At my former company that I worked for, I had 22 municipalities in six counties. I worked out of five different offices,” Wenger said. “I had to be efficient. I had to be computer literate and I had to be mobile.”

His current position with Lehigh Engineering allows him to have fewer customers and be more involved, he said.

Council President Bruce Markovich said the borough also received a letter from Jim Dean, the former code officer, saying that he would be willing to do rental inspections for $20 each, but the borough would have to schedule them.

Councilman Martin Ditsky said Dean left because he didn’t have time, as his work was taking him elsewhere, and now makes this offer on inspections.

Dean was getting $30 an inspection, and Markovich said the borough gets a $100 fee on rental inspections, and then has to pay an engineering company $84.

Councilwoman Gwyneth Collevechio said they need someone who is professional, and Ditsky said that Wenger in his presentation seems knowledgeable, possessing computer skills and probably has an office staff.

Markovich said they could discuss hiring Lehigh at council’s next committee meeting in November, but Collevechio said they could discuss it now.

The only drawback with going with a firm like Lehigh is the cost, Markovich said. The borough’s fee is only $100, and that doesn’t leave them much left to deal with other issues involving rentals, he said.

“If we give Jimmy $20 and there’s no paper trail and everybody complains, it’s not worth $20,” Collevechio said. “For $83, this man is going to do it all. That’s how I feel.”

If the cost is a problem, council may be able to negotiate the fee or up their own fee to $120 to cover costs, she said.

Markovich said he was also concerned about manpower, and if the firm had enough manpower to do the work, and Wenger assured him that they did.

Collevechio felt this was a service that council hadn’t had before, and they should consider moving forward with it.

Markovich said they could put hiring Lehigh Engineering on the agenda for next week, and see how the firm works out, and if they need to adjust their fees, they could approach that later.