The City of Pottsville and the nonprofit Pottsville Area Development Corporation are teaming up to evaluate buildings on West Market Street downtown, according to City Administrator Thomas A. Palamar.
In late spring, the city's Blight and Nuisance Task Force will start rating the buildings from the 100 to the 600 blocks of West Market, including those in Garfield Square, and PADCO will give the public a chance to voice their opinion of this section of town with a survey which will be available online, Palamar said Tuesday.
"It's one of the main arteries to get to our community, so you need to make sure when you get there you know that you are there and you want to be there," Amy S. Burkhart, PADCO executive director, said at the task force's April meeting at City Hall on Tuesday.
Burkhart and Palamar will address the public about their plans at the next regular meeting of the city council, slated for 6:30 p.m. April 14, at the second floor council chambers of City Hall.
"It's good to make sure they realize what we're doing," Palamar said.
This is a new phase of the blight study the task force embarked on in April 2012 - a project to identify the worst blighted properties in the city.
So far, the task force focused its efforts on residential areas. To date, there are 379 properties on the list and city officials have evaluated 377, Palamar said Tuesday.
In February, Mayor James T. Muldowney recommended the Pottsville Blight Task Force evaluate the condition of buildings in the city's central business district.
Palamar said Tuesday that evaluation will begin with properties on West Market Street.
"That will include the Wells Fargo building and the Thompson Building," Palamar said, referring to two landmarks on the west side of the intersection of West Market and Centre, the eight-story Schuylkill Trust Co. building and the six-story Thompson Building.
On Tuesday, the task force reviewed a draft of a four-page "blight rating checklist" that city officials will use to evaluate those buildings.
Inquiries on the draft included "number of police calls to this property" and "are taxes owed on this property."
Palamar said he wasn't certain exactly when the evaluation process will begin.
"We'll have a time line ready for April 14," Palamar said.
Burkhart also presented a draft of the public survey, the "West Market Street Assessment."
It's similar to a survey PADCO developed for the Pottsville Parking Authority in January, with questions on the new survey asking things such as "What do you think is West Market Street's greatest weakness?" and "What can be done to attract more business and customers to West Market Street?"
Burkhart said the survey will be available to the public soon, "once we have everyone's input and get it finalized."
Hard copies of the survey will be available at PADCO's office at 1 S. Second St., Pottsville, but people can also do the survey online by visiting www.downtownpottsville.org.