The Pottsville City Council had a busy night Monday as it approved restrictions on cellphone usage during city business while driving, authorized an agreement for the Pottsville Area Development Corp. to manage the Union Station Intermodal Transit Center and briefly discussed a possible vacancy ordinance and approved a bid to install a wooden guide rail on Progress Avenue.
Suggested by city Police Chief Joseph Murton and coming out of a monthly safety committee meeting, the ordinance states the driver of any vehicle from the city or any vehicle being used for city business is "prohibited from using a mobile communication device, cell phone or computer of any type while the vehicle is in motion." It also states drivers must park if wishing to use such a device.
Murton said the policy does not apply to police or fire fighters responding to emergency situations. Updated also was an acknowledgement of a sexual harassment policy.
"It was always there. We just have to make sure people are aware it's there," he said of the policy.
City Administrator Thomas Palamar said the city continues to work with a tenant for the second floor ofUnion Station that was dedicated last summer. He is optimistic a deal can be finalized this month. QEI Construction, Berks County, is renting the first floor and should move in shortly, Palamar said.
After the meeting, he said that QEI is doing construction now and has the building permit.
The Schuylkill County Visitors Bureau also has space on the first floor and the police substation is also at the site.
Because the city is not in the business of managing the site, it is better to have an outside entity do it, Palamar said.
PADCO would be paid $1,250 a month out of money collected "as a part of common area charges," costs billed to the tenants dependent upon their percentage of use at the site. The council authorized the agreement, which still needs completed, but will be submitted to the city solicitor. PADCO could be responsible for managing the site within the month, Palamar said.
Council member Mark Atkinson suggested a vacancy ordinance and "to change the zoning ordinance for future units to keep some of neighbors in tact as well as far as limiting the number of rental properties that we can put into a neighborhood. I see in this economy where people are losing their houses in foreclosures and we get a lot of out of town investors coming in and they're buying up properties that before we know if we're loosing whole blocks to nothing but rental properties. Pottsville city was built to hold 30,000 people and we're down below 16,000 now. You think that at some point at time you need to stop the bleeding and preserve our neighborhood and with that, I'd also like to consider what some cities have done by enacting a vacancy ordinance ..." Atkinson said that having a vacancy ordinance would help the downtown. A fee could be assessed for having a percentage of the building vacant. "We've got a lot of buildings that are sitting vacant that have not had any movement on them at all. In some cases years," he said.
Some of the buildings have residential space above them that is not being used. He said that "in order to encourage the development of our downtown that we get these investors to renovate their second and third floors into living spaces." Increased people downtown would have a positive effect and would "encourage our business to grow," he said.
Palamar said "The vacancy ordinance is something that could really be helpful," to the city.
Palamar said the ordinance might just apply to commercial buildings and including some that have residential space available but would have to do more research.
"We'll be discussing samples in February," Palamar said after the meeting of any vacancy ordinances.
He said an ordinance could be a way of "keeping track of some of the buildings that aren't being utilized in a while."
Buildings that are vacant for a couple months are different then those that sit for a longer period of time, Palamar said.
Such a vacancy ordinance could "help turn buildings around," by working with PADCO to lend funds to repair them.
Further continuing the discussion about the city, Palamar said the city is looking at locations for a retail incubator downtown.
No locations were mentioned.
A bid for $17,850.00 was awarded to Long Fence Company Inc. for a wooden guide rail on Progress Avenue. The firm has 30 days to start work with extensions given for inclement weather, Palamar said.
Mayor John D. W. Reiley mentioned that he was contacted about a possible restaurant coming to Pottsville.
One resident asked what the city was doing to keep costs down.
Council member Michael P. Halcovage and others said the city is trying its best.
Taxes increased in 2012 after council approved a 0.6 mill increase, resulting in $8.73 more this year for the average tax bill in the city.
In other news, council appointed several people for positions such as representative to the library, the Historical Architectural Review Board the planning commission, housing authority and others. Volunteer fire police officers were also sworn in by Mayor Reiley.