It’s news many Bradford residents have been waiting to hear for
the past few years — a new Mexican restaurant is on its way to Main
Street.
At Tuesday’s meeting of Bradford City Council, the board
approved a lease/purchase agreement for 109 Main St. — the former
La Herradura building — to Jeremy Callinan. The agreement is a
lease of the building for $1,750 per month, $300 of which will be
applied towards the purchase of the building, with an option for
the purchase at the end of the three-year term for $75,000.
The city’s Office of Economic and Community Development recently
renovated the building for the purpose of attracting a new
restaurant there.
“We’re pleased that Jeremy is opening a restaurant,” said Sara
Andrews, OECD executive director.
The council members echoed her comments, and thanked him for
choosing downtown Bradford as a place to start his business.
Also at the council meeting, West Corydon Street resident James
Fowler addressed council about blight problems around his home.
“I know the city’s on a tight budget,” he said, “but I’ve got
piles and piles of debris behind my home.”
Mayor Tom Riel said the city has had to demolish some residences
in that area because one collapsed, and others were in danger of
doing the same. However, in the area of Terrace Street where the
house collapsed in August, there are no roads for trucks to access
the site to haul off debris.
“I would like something done,” Fowler said. He showed council
pictures of the areas to which he was referring.
City Clerk John Peterson said Code Enforcement Officer George
Corignani had been to that area recently, and had given Fowler’s
neighbors a time frame in which to comply with codes.
Fowler said they cleaned up some, but not enough. He said the
worst area is by his back yard. “George is probably going to have
to get out of his truck to see it,” Fowler said.
Fire Chief Boo Coder said he will go to Fowler’s house today to
look at the problems, and will follow up on getting the issues
addressed.
In related business, council approved payment of $7,100 to 6-V
Excavating to demolish a house at 69 W. Corydon St. Of that amount,
$4,100 will be paid from the city’s Emergency Demolition Account
and $3,000 will come from 2009 Community Development Block Grant
funds.
Council also passed several resolutions relating to the
replacement of the Kennedy Street bridge. They authorized Riel to
enter a reimbursement agreement with the Bradford City Water
Authority for 50 percent of the cost to relocate the waterline
attached to the Kennedy Street bridge.
Riel was also given the authority to enter into right-of-way
agreements necessary for the bridge. The agreements will be with
Thomas and Susan Palz, Hull Electric Inc. and John and Paul
Belleville for rights-of-way or temporary construction
easements.
In other business, council approved on first reading a change to
the city’s police department wage ordinance, removing one position
of a lieutenant and adding one for assistant chief. The assistant
chief will be Mike Ward, and will be paid $50,868.30.
Prior to the meeting, the OECD held the second required public
hearing for the 2010 CDBG program funds.
The proposed activities are as follows: $30,000 for housing
rehabilitation; $30,000 for demolition; $50,000 for code
enforcement; $10,000 for sidewalk improvement program; $50,000 for
Elm Street Neighborhood streetscape improvements; $40,000 for the
city’s required match for the Kennedy Street bridge replacement
project; $50,000 for gateway improvements; $25,000 for beginning
work on the Pine Street pedestrian bridge; $25,000 for an ice
grooming machine at the Callahan Park ice rink; and $65,000 for
general administration of the program.
Andrews gave an update on the status of projects to address the
bridge on Elm Street and stream improvements to Bolivar Run near
Constitution Avenue. She explained the bridge project didn’t make
it onto the North Central Pennsylvania Regional Planning and
Development Commission’s Transportation Improvement Program for the
year.
“They are not taking any new projects,” Andrews said.
The stream project is in the TIP, and the Pennsylvania
Department of Transportation will be holding a work session May 11
with city council to talk about it.
The next regularly scheduled council meeting will be held at 7
p.m. April 27.
Grant for new city fire station denied
It was a dream, but unfortunately, one that didn’t come through
for the Bradford City Fire Department.
The Department of Homeland Security grant the fire station was
hoping for was denied.
“I had my hopes up,” said Fire Chief Boo Coder, explaining they
got a denial letter yesterday. “Everything was hanging on a wish
and a prayer. Hopefully we’ll get another chance.
“And in the meantime, our antique fire station will keep getting
older,” Coder said. “We’ll keep searching for grants.”
Coder said the fire department had qualified for funding from
the Department of Agriculture, but that money hinged on the federal
grant.
“We called the guy we’ve been working with from the Department
of Agriculture and told him to use the money somewhere else,” Coder
said. The funding would have been in the form of a low-interest
loan, which the city can’t afford, the fire chief said.
“Everybody knows the city has no money,” Coder said. He added
that while this is a huge setback, he will continue looking for
ways to build a new station without cost to the city.
The fire department has been trying for funds for a new station
for nearly a year, and was the target of public outcry when about
$20,000 was spent on a feasibility study for a new station.
Last June, Coder went to Bradford City Council asking for funds
to be rerouted from the purchase of a new chief’s vehicle to pay
for the study. The study ended up costing more than $20,000, much
to the dismay of Mayor Tom Riel and much of the public.
The proposed fire station was a multi-million-dollar,
state-of-the-art, environmentally friendly station.
The Homeland Security funds were available through the federal
stimulus money and were targeted towards renovating old stations,
or building new ones.
