The city's streets department is having trouble keeping one of the city's sidewalks clear of ice and snow because of water runoff from Sharp Mountain, according to City Administrator Thomas A. Palamar.
A stretch of sidewalk on the west side of the 300 block of South Centre Street from the gothic stone fountain at 325 S. Centre St. to 375 S. Centre St., has been covered with ice in recent weeks.
"We maintain this. It's the section in front of the Henry Clay Monument. We had an ice problem. There was water that came over the sidewalk and completely froze that whole area. We had a build-up over the past month or so. At one point, it was 10 inches thick or so, so they couldn't remove it," Palamar said Friday.
Since the winter of 1999-2000, the average seasonal snowfall in Schuylkill County has been 44.29 inches. From the first snowfall of the season on Oct. 24 through Wednesday, a total of 59.5 inches fell in Schuylkill County, according to Kevin Fitzgerald, a meteorologist at National Weather Service, State College.
Fitzgerald got those statistics from an weather observation center based in Mahanoy City.
Today, more snow will fall.
"We're thinking we're going to get in the four-to-eight inch range. The bulk of it will be Sunday afternoon into the first half of Monday," Fitzgerald said.
The accumulation and compaction and runoff from the mountain have paved that city sidewalk with ice, Palamar said.
"We had installed drainage to prevent that from happening. But it didn't work this year. I'm guessing it was the inordinate amount of snow we had. The runoff came from the mountain and went right over the sidewalk. And it was ice. Not snow. We couldn't remove it. It was thick. There was no way to remove that unless we used, like, a jackhammer," Palamar said.
Meanwhile, city officials are concerned about sidewalks which appear to have been ignored by the people and organizations that are responsible for them.
The sidewalk in front of 325 S. Centre St., the former YWCA of Pottsville building, is one area causing concern.
On Sept. 9, 2011, Latif Sean Ougzin, Jackson Heights, N.Y., bought the building from the Schuylkill YMCA for $145,000, according to the online Schuylkill Parcel Locator. In August 2012, a "for sale" sign was put on the building.
David J. Petravich, city deputy code enforcement officer, said Friday he's made an effort to contact the property owner through Ramus Realty Group, Pottsville, the realtor Ougzin is working with.
"I think I'm going to have to start citing that guy," Petravich said Friday.
Meanwhile, Donald J. Chescavage, city code enforcement officer, said he issued a Quality of Life ticket to Reading Blue Mountain & Northern Railroad in December since the railroad failed to remove snow from the east sidewalk on the 600 block of South Centre Street.
That ticket became a citation on Jan. 21. A court date on the matter has yet been scheduled, Chescavage said.