FRACKVILLE - During its meeting Nov. 14, the borough council decided not to deal with code violations through a Quality of Life ordinance and stick with property code requirements already on the books.
Councilman Bradley Gotshall raised the issue during the October meeting, when he made the motion to create such an ordinance. The motion died for lack of a second.
Gotshall once again made the same motion, with Councilman Brian Dillman providing a second. Dillman was not in attendance in October.
Gotshall said the measure would give the borough "real teeth to go after violators of the code." He called the ordinance a "common sense approach" to dealing with blight issues.
The ordinance is designed to address problems that degrade the physical appearance of the community. The detrimental effects inhibit economic development, reduce business and tax revenue, which has a negative impact for citizens involving their quality of life and community pride. It would allow the borough code enforcement officer and police officers to issue tickets similar to parking tickets when code violations are found, such as trash, high weeds, animal feces and snow and ice removal.
After much debate among council members, the motion was defeated in a 3-4 vote, with Gotshall, Dillman and council President Ron Jordan voting in favor. Voting against was Peter Zuber, Karen Domalakes, Charles Berger and John Morgan.
Since the meeting, council members discussed their positions.
"After several discussions, several members of council felt that the people would be held hostage," Dillman said after the meeting. "According to Karen (Domalakes), who helped compile amendments to the ordinances that were not added to the borough code book, we have ordinances to enforce what would be in a Quality of Life Ordinance."
"With the current system, officials of the borough give residents warnings of a violation and then follow up lack of action with a citation," Gotshall said.
"You don't have to wait that 30 or 60 days until you go to the magistrate," Dillman said.
Domalakes said that 80 to 90 percent of the violations are currently being corrected by code enforcement officer Larry Levy, which showed the new ordinance was not necessary.
Dillman said there was also concern by some council members that while Levy does work with residents in getting violations corrected, he said a future code officer may not permit a person to correct the problem and just issue a citation.
"That's what they were afraid of," said Dillman.
Gotshall said of the vote, "It is a shame that our council let the residents of Frackville down with this vote. We now have an opportunity to be in real control of our community, and I am deeply disappointed that our board couldn't come to a consensus on this issue."
The communities of Pottsville, Mahanoy City, Shenandoah, Hazleton, West Hazleton and Reading have adopted similar ordinances. At its Nov. 8 meeting, Girardville approved advertising an ordinance similar to those in Shenandoah and Mahanoy City, with plans to formally adopt it at its December meeting.