GIRARDVILLE - A building on East Main Street is close to a partial collapse and the borough is trying to gain ownership in order to remove the entire structure.
The vacant building at 13-15 E. Main St. is owned by Terrence and Claudette Hodge. It is a hazard to two neighboring properties to the west: Centiole's Pizza, 1 E. Main St., which is also the home of owner Mariette Centiole, and another business, Vanity Boutique, 9 E. Main St., owned by Centiole's daughter, Kathy Centiole-Martone, which is next to the vacant building. To the east of 13-15 E. Main St. is a vacant lot.
The borough has barricaded the front of the building with wooden horses to prevent pedestrians from walking by and vehicles from parking. Snow piled around the horses after the recent storm also reduces accessibility.
According to Mayor Edward Burns, the front facade began leaning forward before last week's snow. The third floor's west wall also buckled inward and snow can be seen on the inside windows, adding weight to the structure. In addition to being a hazard to other buildings, utility lines and a pole are in danger of being hit by the front facade, which could interrupt electrical and other utility services to residents and businesses.
"I don't know what's holding it up," Burns said at the site. "I'm waiting for the call to bring over the loader to push it off the street. It started coming down before it snowed and I thought that with the snow hitting it, it would have come down then."
Burns expressed concern that if the front wall falls, it may cause other sections of the building to shift and collapse.
Burns said he and the borough council want the dangerous eyesore to be removed, and the borough is pursuing a process called conservatorship in order to gain ownership through the legal system.
"It's a waiting game ... because we have to go through the legal avenues," Burns said. "Borough council is doing everything they can to amend this situation but it doesn't look good right now."
During the council's meeting Nov. 8, solicitor Christopher Riedlinger introduced the idea of gaining ownership by petitioning the Schuylkill County Court of Common Pleas. The petition would ask the court for judicial approval to demolish the structure by being granted "powers of attorney" over the property through a state conservatorship statute. The borough's inability to contact the owners and the building's hazardous condition prompted the course of action.
"The borough has to go the legal route," Burns said. "We have found another possible address of the owner in New Jersey, so we're pursuing that."
If the borough obtains judicial approval to demolish the building, then it would become eligible for demolition funding from the county, getting up to 75 percent of the cost. At the November meeting, Councilman Joseph Chiaretti said he had asked for demolition estimates, which ranged from $30,000 to $70,000. If demolition would cost $40,000, the borough would be responsible for $10,000.
Riedlinger said in a phone interview Thursday that a court hearing has been scheduled for Jan. 24.
"We're hopeful that things can be settled on that day," said Riedlinger, who has been involved with a recent conservatorship process in Butler Township. "We were quite happy that the court date was set so close to our filing for it. It doesn't have to be. The statute gives the court 120 days to schedule a hearing, and we got it scheduled only about 30 days after we filed our petition."
When the hearing is held, the borough will have an expert witness in engineering who has inspected the building and will testify that the building needs to be razed, Riedlinger said.
"That person will be testifying that the most cost-efficient way to bring this building up to code is to tear it down and start over," Riedlinger said.