In July, Mayor John D.W. Reiley said he wanted Pottsville to have a "Quality of Life" ordinance like the one the City of Reading, Berks County, approved in February. That ordinance allows the city to ticket property owners on the spot for violations like high weeds or grass or scattered rubbish.
On Monday, he got one.
The city council held the second, and final, reading of an ordinance to give its code enforcement officer and other designated city representatives the power to issue tickets on the spot, similar to that of a traffic cop.
"Everything we put into this ordinance is to try to make the city more efficient and effective in getting to the problems in the community. And we're trying to be practical about it, not theoretical about it," City Administrator Thomas A. Palamar said at the meeting.
Following a unanimous vote from the council at its September meeting, Bill 7 of 2012 became law, Ordinance 820.
"I'm very excited about it. When you have a bigger force out there which can hand out these tickets, it goes hand in hand with the blight clean up project," Councilman Mark Atkinson said.
This is part of the mayor's high-profile war to eliminate blight in the city. In April, Reiley established the Pottsville Blight and Nuisance Task Force, a team of city officials. Since then, the team has worked up a data base of 325 properties as of Monday, and has so far visited and evaluated 153 of them, according to Palamar.
Now, with Ordinance 820, he's going to arm a team of city officers with tickets for code violations they can issue without giving any warnings.
The council approved the ordinance with a motion by council member James T. Muldowney, which was seconded by Atkinson and carried by votes from council member Lori A. Spotts and Mayor John D.W. Reiley. Councilman Michael P. Halcovage was absent from Monday's meeting.
The council also designated which public officers would be able to issue these code enforcement tickets: code enforcement officer, deputy code enforcement officer, police, health officer, fire chief, assistant fire chief, animal control officer and tax administrators.
"Yes. That's good," city Fire Chief Todd March said.
"We've got our assistant fire chiefs going out in the middle of the night and they're going into houses where there's hoarders and so forth and then they come back and they say, 'What do we do about that?' Now, we can ticket them on the spot," Atkinson said.
Depending on the situation, such matters can be addressed by violations including "accumulation of rubbish, garbage, junk or litter."
The other violations are storing of hazardous material; storing of recyclables; storage containers for waste or trash; littering, scattering rubbish or dumping; motor vehicles; placement or littering by private advertising matter; animal maintenance or waste/feces; insects or vermin; high weeds or grass, plant growth or standing water; snow and ice removal from sidewalks; swimming pools; compliance with Historical Architectural Review Board regulations; vending license violations; storing or serving or potentially hazardous food; and registration of tenants.
The 16th violation has been added since the first reading of the ordinance in August, according to Palamar. He said it was recommended by city police Officer Eugene Yourey.
"One of the bigger problems police and firefighters run into at times is going into a property and a person living at the residence isn't a registered tenant. So, we want to cite landlords who fail to register their tenants. It's important to add in because police and firefighters need to know who's in these buildings. And we want to know who's in these buildings as well," Palamar said.
First violation fines will be $25. Property owners who fail to pay fines can be issued a citation fine between $300 and $1,000. And citations can be appealed within 15 days to the city administrator, according to the ordinance.
Palamar said the city hired Eastern Press, Pottsville, to print the tickets, and city officers will have copies in hand later this month.
In other matters at the council's September meeting, Muldowney, head of the council's Streets Committee, offered an update on the city's 2012 Road Program. City street workers will be paving a few sections in the coming weeks, including:
- Arch Street from Route 61 to Progress Avenue will be paved this week.
- East Norwegian Street from Route 61 to Progress Avenue will be paved the week of Sept. 17.
- Schuylkill Manor Road, from East Norwegian Street to the city line, will be paved the week of Sept. 24.
- Forest Road will be paved the week Oct. 1.
"Please keep in mind that these dates may be adjusted due to weather," Muldowney said.
Meanwhile, on the recommendation of the Schuylkill Economic Development Corp., city council approved a resolution to give an address to the eastern side of the city's bus station and office building, Union Station.
While the western end, the entrance to the bus station, will continue to have the building's designated address at 300 S. Centre St., the eastern side, which is the entrance to offices including the one SEDCO is establishing on the second floor, is now "One Progress Circle," according to the resolution.