May 19, 2006 By Christine Haines 3 min read

CONNELLSVILLE – A Brownsville property owner has been fined $30,900 for failing to correct building code violations at 13 different properties in a targeted code enforcement area. The largest fine levied against Ernest Liggett and his various businesses that own the properties was a fine of $300 a day on each of three citations issued for violations at 17-19 Market St., the building that houses Eckerd Drugs.

“Of all the properties, this is the most serious and creates the biggest problem in my mind,” said Magisterial District Judge Ronald Haggerty.

It is the only one of the cited properties that is currently occupied.

Liggett’s current attorney, L.F. Grimm of Pittsburgh, argued that the code enforcement officer did not have jurisdiction over one of the cases, a property located on Front Street, because that site was located in the North Side historic district, which he contended was not part of the targeted enforcement area.

Code enforcement officer Don Baugh said he didn’t know about the town’s various historic districts, but he did have a map made of the targeted enforcement area and 126 Front St. is part of his enforcement area.

Grimm said that the other cases were based on notices of violation that had already been litigated and are currently on appeal.

“We’re being asked to defend multiple times on the same notice,” Liggett’s attorney said.

“There have been no corrective actions taken,” argued attorney Belinda Dellarose, representing the borough. “There is nothing that says we cannot re-cite. If we waited, we would be waiting six to eight months down the road before we could enforce our codes.”

Haggerty said the fines he previously imposed on the properties were through a specific date, unrelated to the current violation period.

Haggerty had imposed more than $12,000 in fines against Liggett during a late-January hearing.

“I can’t control what the Court of Common Pleas does. I think the borough is within its rights to refile these citations. The problem still exists,” Haggerty said. “Since there’s been nothing that changed down in Brownsville, this court is willing to accept the original notice of violation. You have 30 days to appeal any decision made at this court level.”

Liggett was cited for properties located on Front Street, Bank Street, Prospect Street and Market Street. Many of the citations were for missing or damaged window glazing or failure to provide adequate protection, such as paint, to exterior surfaces. There were also violations for collapsed roofs and damaged foundations on several of the buildings.

Baugh testified that while plywood had been put up on a few of the buildings since the citations had been issued, it had been installed in such a way that broken glass, missing glazing and exterior protection remained problems at the properties.