by peter e. bortner
Continuing their efforts to combat blight in the city, Pottsville officials have sold a condemned property on Mahantongo Street to its neighbors.
The city sold the double house at 1948-1950 Mahantongo St. for $10,117.27 to Victor and Mary E. Perez, 1944 Mahantongo St.
The sale, by deed recorded April 24, successfully ends the city's effort to find a new owner for a decrepit property. City officials used a state law, which has been used by several local municipalities, to fight blight.
In response to a petition filed April 15, 2013, by Pottsville officials, Judge James P. Goodman on July 22 appointed the city conservator of the property.
Under the state Abandoned and Blighted Property Conservatorship Act, the city assumed ownership of the vacant property and had the right to demolish, renovate or sell it.
On April 2, Goodman signed an order directing that the property be sold free and clear of all liens to the Perezes.
City officials had alleged the property was a health hazard, unfit for habitation and a public danger.
It had been owned by William Winlack, whom city officials believe is a resident of Rest Haven, the county nursing home.
During a roundtable information session Monday with gubernatorial candidate Kathleen A. McGinty, Mayor James T. Muldowney and City Councilman Joseph Devine said combating blight is a top priority in Pottsville.
"We want to correct the problem. We don't want to take the properties down," Muldowney said.
Devine said such properties lead to other problems.
"What we're finding with these blighted properties is crime," Devine said.
Several county municipalities have used the Abandoned and Blighted Property Conservatorship Act to attack dilapidated properties.
The most notable local use of the law was by Foster Township to take possession of the old and deteriorating James Neale Mansion in Buck Run.
That property has since been resold by the township to Joseph J. Roperto, Gainesville, Va., who is rehabilitating it. However, a Jan. 10 fire has slowed those efforts.