Feb 2, 2018 By Mark Soroka for The 3 min read

CHARLEROI — Absentee landlords who fail to maintain their properties will be scrutinized more closely, said several council members.

Councilwoman Jody Cheplic said during an agenda meeting that some out-of-town landlords are neglecting to repair properties, remove snow from sidewalks and mow lawns. A few of those landlords are also behind on their trash bills.

“This has been going on for a long time and those landlords are getting away with it,” she said. “Besides being unsightly and unsafe, that affects the value of other properties. We have to be more proactive and start enforcing our code more strictly.”

Councilman Randy DiPiazza said the code enforcement officer tries to give leniency to property owners who ask for more time to address upkeep issues. However, some landlords fail to keep their promise.

“There’s one property owner who told me he’s going through a tough divorce,” said DiPiazza. “But that’s been going on for 10 years. That pushes this problem under the carpet.”

Charleroi solicitor Steven Toprani offered several strategies to resolve the issues.

“You can hold these absentee landlords to tighter deadlines for fixing their properties,” he said. “Also, you could commence nuisance actions against them.”

Regardless of which approach council chooses to take, Cheplic wants to see swift action.

“We’re never going to fix this town and make it better unless we are more proactive,” she said. “We need to have a frank talk with our code enforcement officer and make it clear that we have to get tougher with these people.”

Also during the meeting, council members discussed how to address Charleroi Regional Police Department’s need for a larger station. One solution would be to move the station to the former Bell Telephone building at Seventh Street and Fallowfield Avenue. Council President Jerry Jericho is not in favor of that idea, however.

“We have invested a lot of money in our present building,” he said. “It would also cost a lot of money to move all the police equipment and cameras to a new site. Not only that, but we would be left with an empty building that would only house a few employees.”

Jericho suggested that the borough could remodel the open space behind the garage door that sits adjacent to the municipal building.

“We could put the borough office at the front of the building,” he said. “Behind the office, we could set up the council chambers and the police department. Then we could lease the space upstairs. I will bring up this idea with the police board and get their feedback.”

In addition, council members agreed to seek more service contract estimates for the municipal building elevator and they discussed ways to utilize the empty space on the third floor. Officials also thanked Model Cleaners for donating uniforms for the borough’s meter enforcement officer.

The next regular meeting of the council will be held Thursday at 6 p.m.