SHENANDOAH - Borough Manager Joseph L. Palubinsky revealed during Monday's Shenandoah Borough Council meeting the 2013 street paving program that should begin in the near future.
Bids from five companies were opened at the June meeting, and after review by the borough engineer, M&J Excavation Inc., Bloomsburg, was determined to be the low bidder at $77,287, which is the total of the base bid of $28,655, plus the $48,632 bid on Alternate No. 2.
The project will include the paving of Emerick Street, from Centre to Oak streets, and West Street from Lloyd to Coal streets. The paving will be from curb-to-curb. The total project cost is $85,487, which includes engineering and other costs.
Palubinsky said funding of $105,108.04 comes from the state Department of Community and Economic Development, which required surveys to determine what percentage of low-to-moderate-income households reside along those streets.
Councilman Robert Shortt asked if the remaining $20,000 could be used to patch other streets.
"Some of the paving is so broken up that cold patch just isn't going to do it," Shortt said.
Palubinsky said it is possible, but the borough would need to do the income surveys in those areas to use the DCED funds.
"We have to justify that the money we're using is benefiting low-to-moderate income residents," Palubinsky said.
Borough council approved M&J Excavation to do the road program project.
During the public portion, resident Annie Morrisey registered a complaint about a manhole cover at Lloyd and Bower streets that is raised above the street so much that it damaged her vehicle and that of another person after driving over it. She said a local resident parks a large vehicle near it and requires others to drive over it, causing damage to vehicles with a low clearance above the street. No comments were made by borough officials on Morrisey's complaint.
Resident Donald Segal asked about the demolition of the remaining West Coal Street properties destroyed by fire earlier this year. Several of the buildings have been demolished.
Palubinsky told Segal that DCED has informed the borough it will have department funding to assist in tearing down some building, which may include those structures.
Later in the meeting, borough council approved an amendment to a DCED contract to allocate $55,000 in leftover funds from another program for use in demolition.
"Some good news here. We submitted a request asking them to allow us to utilize this money to address some of these fire-damaged properties," Palubinsky said. "These properties are held by the Schuylkill County Tax Claim Bureau in repository for non-payment of taxes. There may be an owner of record, but unfortunately no one has taken responsibility on paying taxes. What I would like to do is sit down with the Building and Grounds Committee, identify which ones we want to improve on the demolition list and proceed in that fashion."
He added, "It sounds like $55,000 is a lot of money, but it's not in this day and age when you're tearing homes down."
Segal also asked about the status of a property near Poplar and Ferguson streets, explaining that the owner had offered to turn over the deed to the borough. O'Pake explained that there were problems involving the title change.
"There was a title search done on that property and there were a lot of title issues," O'Pake said. "He technically didn't have the right to sign that over. There are errors there. Quite honestly, it's going to cost the borough a lot of money to fix those title problems."
"It's still an ongoing title issue and we tried to resolve it but we couldn't," Palubinsky said.
Resident Charles Vascavage spoke of people putting holes in the garage door at the former Brokoff's Dairy building on North Chestnut Street. He also spoke of the building's poor condition.
"Kids are going to start getting in there and somebody could start a fire, even though it's been stripped out," Vascavage said.
Palubinsky said the out-of-town owner has been cited numerous times for violations.
The Schuylkill County Fall Clean-up will be held Sept. 26 to 28, with drop-off points at various locations in the county. Palubinsky said the borough will pick up items at no cost to take to the closest locations, which are Ringtown and Girardville. Anyone with items for the clean-up must register at borough hall, and they are responsible for any fees set by the county for certain items.