Three more homes in Bradford City have been declared public nuisances due to their condition.
The city’s Board of Health met Tuesday prior to the regular city council meeting and voted in favor of taking the next steps to handle blight problems at 115 Kennedy St. (front), 1 Leigh St. and 173 South Ave.
The 115 Kennedy St. property has “become an attractive dwelling for vagrants,” said health director Mike Cleveland, who added that the windows are broken and the home has been damaged by weather.
Mayor Tom Riel said it was a “shame it fell into disrepair,” as the home at 115 Kennedy St. is “one of the oldest ones in that neighborhood.”
At 1 Leigh St., there is deterioration and a general lack of maintenance, according to Cleveland. Trouble areas include a damaged garage, collapsed roof, water infiltration and some foundation damage.
Portions of 173 South Ave. were missing due to rot, Cleveland explained. The property was abandoned and was in general disrepair.
The Board of Health also addressed an appeal hearing on 92 Summer St., owned by Dennis Quick, granting him more time to make improvements before the end of the year.
Quick has one week to finish taking out a piece of subfloor, to remove all debris that was removed from the home and to remove a Dumpster from the property. He has until the end of the year to complete work to the front porch and to finish putting up vinyl siding on all sides except where he plans to put an addition.
The board plans to meet with Quick in January.
City council addressed mostly routine business at a brief meeting that followed the Board of Health meeting.
Council passed on the second and final reading amendments to the ordinance on rental property.
The amendment added language indicating certain structures and units, for the purpose of estate planning, would be exempt from the article on rental units. The amendment deleted a sentence stating that people registering a rental needed to put on the form the number and type of rooms in each unit. Also, the amendment increased the annual registration fee from $35 to $45 per unit for properties with up to four units and increased the fee from $25 to $35 per unit for properties with more than four units. Finally, the amendment included changes under the section on inspection fees.
Council also approved the sale of the following tax parcels from the McKean County Tax Claim Repository: 19 Thompson Ave. to Christopher M. Ackley, 210 South Ave. to Terry M. Cramer, 4 Osborne Place to Amy L. Peterson, 19 Delaware Ave. to Harry Solarek, 363 Jackson Ave. to Joey W. Herman and 361 Jackson Ave. to Joey Herman.
These tax parcels sales were declined due to the properties being deemed beyond the scope of renovations: 59 Clarence St., 16 Fairbanks Ave., 101 High St., 50 Rochester St., 47 S. Kendall Ave., 29 Linwood Ave., 93 Delaware Ave. and another Delaware Avenue property for which no number was available.
Halloween trick-or-treating will be held from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Oct. 31 in Bradford City.
The next regular council meeting will be at 7 p.m. Nov. 13.
