Since the City of Pottsville unveiled its top 10 worst properties at a public meeting in June, city officials have been taking steps to deal with them.
"So far, the owners of three of them have contacted us and we're working with them. Some of these properties will be more difficult to deal with than others, like one owned by a guy from Canada," Leo Schwartz, the city's business privilege tax administrator, said Tuesday at the July meeting of the Pottsville Blight and Nuisance Task Force.
The city council will unveil the next 10 worst properties in the city at a slide show at the council's next meeting at 6:30 p.m. Monday, in City Hall.
"These will be properties 11 to 20," City Administrator Thomas A. Palamar said Tuesday.
At the blight task force meeting Tuesday, Palamar said the city is attacking these problem properties by making phone calls and looking for opportunities to cite the owners.
"We asked these people to contact us by July 5 to schedule a meeting, to see what they plan to do and how they're going to do it. And if they don't call us, then we're going to have to do what we threatened to do. We have to go up to these properties every day. If the weeds are high, then every day they get a ticket and so forth," Palamar said.
The "Top 10 Worst Properties in the City of Pottsville" and their owners are as follows:
10. 602 W. Arch St., Mike Beers, owner
9. 556-558 Peacock St., James and Christina Stepen
8. 124 S. Third St., Robert Truck
7. 317 N. George St., William Lucabaugh
6. 1950 Mahantongo St., William Winlack
5. 456 Nichols St., Lisa Phillip as custodian
4. 303 N. Ninth St., Garage Flex LLC
3. 407 Laurel Blvd., Apt. & Acquisitions
2. 446 E. Market St., Tala M. Rajha
1. 674 N. Second St., Said Attalla.
Thus far, the owners of three of them have stepped forward to work with the city: Beers, owner of 602 W. Arch St.; Truck, owner of 124 S. Third St.; and Rajha, owner of 446 E. Market St.
"We're going to try to work something out with them. With Beers and Truck, we have bankruptcy factoring into it," Schwartz said.
Palamar said the owners of blighted properties who don't make an effort to work with the city will eventually be facing citations.
The worst property, owned by Said Attalla, is a row home which is slowly deteriorating. It's front door is pushed in, knocked off the hinges.
It will be difficult to tackle since Attalla lives in Canada, Schwartz said.
"Right now, the tools we have at our disposal work best on people here in the States," Schwartz said.