MAHANOY CITY - The borough council Tuesday approved a bid that will lead to the demolition of two vacant dilapidated homes in the near future.
Two bids were received for the demolition work at 416-418 W. Centre St., with the low bid of $18,700 offered by Northeast Industrial Services Corp., Shamokin.
The properties had been owned by Cristy Sacks, who recently transferred ownership to the borough in order to proceed with razing the buildings. From the Centre Street side, the vacant homes are in the middle of a block of row homes and show years of neglect and disrepair, but the back of the structures show them collapsing.
Steve Sisak, who lives next door at 420 W. Centre St., has been attending borough council meetings for at least three years to voice his concerns about the dangers of the properties. He attended Tuesday's meeting as usual.
"What's the update on the properties?" asked Sisak during the public portion.
"We're opening the bids tonight," said council President Patti Schnitzius.
"I talked to the (Schuylkill County) Tax Claim Bureau and the last date for anyone to object to the sale to the borough is July 15," borough solicitor Michael A. O'Pake said. "We should have the deeds in hand within a few days after that."
"We're anxious to see the (demolition) containers out there when they start tearing them down," said Sisak.
The bid from Northeast Industrial was accepted unanimously. As soon as the borough has the title to the properties, the company will be given permission to proceed with the demolition.
Resident Sarah Devine also addressed council, asking about an agenda item to vote on approval of disapproval of the repository sales of 11 properties, nine of which have offers from one buyer, Francis Devizia, White Mills. There were two other bidders for single properties.
"My question is if Ashland can reject 13 parcels for repository sale because of the purchaser, why can't Mahanoy City?" Devine asked.
She was referring to the action at Ashland council's June 12 meeting when 12 repository sale bids on 13 parcels were rejected. All properties were being purchased by one company.
"You're telling me that this man from White Mills, who is going to buy nine of them, is actually going to do something with them? I doubt it very much," said Devine.
Since O'Pake was unfamiliar with what transpired at the Ashland meeting, Devine gave him a copy of The Republican-Herald account of the meeting.
"Apparently, the purchaser had some code issues in Ashland, which would give them a basis to reject," O'Pake said.
O'Pake said that if Devizia has any code violations in the borough or other municipalities, the borough would have a basis to reject. O'Pake spoke with borough Manager Daniel Lynch before the meeting.
"Dan and I spoke about that little beforehand and we're going to be looking into it before we approve it," said O'Pake. "We don't know the answer to that right now, but we're going to see if there are any violations."
"We are looking into all these things beforehand, but if we can't find anything, we can't just reject them because we don't like what they're doing," Schnitzius said.
When it was time to vote on the repository sales, council approved the sales on the condition that there are no outstanding issues involving any of the bidders. If some problem is found, the approval on the respective properties will become a rejection.