MAHANOY CITY — A borough resident spoke at length Tuesday to the borough council about a blighted property that is causing damage to her neighboring home.
Janice Maziekas spoke about the vacant property at 706 E. Mahanoy St. The Schuylkill County Parcel Locator identified the property as being owned by Quarter Place Enterprises Inc., Carlsbad, California.
“I’d like to start at the top of the house. The roof is leaking, which causes my attic wall to be constantly damp, and now I have black mold on it,” Maziekas said. “The chimney, which I share, is half removed because the bricks are sitting in my attic because no contractor will stand on the roof to repair it. The roof ledge on the front of the attic is sinking, the drain that is in the roof is higher than the roof itself. It’s filled with at least eight inches of water and cannot drain. As a result, I constantly have a wet wall in my front bedroom, which stained, spotted and is turning black.”
Maziekas continued that water pipes freeze in the winter due to drafts coming from the vacant home, costing her money to thaw them. The roof over the kitchen at 706 has collapsed and has pulled away from her home, leaving a large gap and allowing water to come into her kitchen, dining room and laundry room. She added that her own roof needs to be repaired and to do so, she must partially cover the neighboring roof to keep out water at a cost estimated at more than $5,000.
Maziekas said the properties have been visited by council President Thom Maziekas, who is the brother of her late husband; borough Manager Daniel L. Lynch; and Code Enforcement Officer William F. Killian III.
“I just wanted all of the council members who weren’t aware of this problem to hear about it,” Janice Maziekas said.
“We’re very much aware of the problem, Janice, and you are not the only one in Mahanoy City that has the problem,” Thom Maziekas said. “We didn’t create the problem.”
“No, it is your responsibility to take care of the town and make sure it is safe for everybody that lives here,” Janis Maziekas said. “In September of 2009, I attended the council meeting and I informed the council of all these problems.”
Lynch said the borough would address the problem at some point, and he agreed the property is in very bad condition.
“I think everybody in the room would agree that blight is inherently unfair,” Lynch said. “You would say to me, ‘I shouldn’t have to buy it. I shouldn’t have to rip it down.’ But the borough is not an entity. The borough is everyone. The borough is all 4,000 residents.”
Lynch said that if the borough would demolish it at an estimate $25,000, every borough resident will be paying for it.
“The entire community is ripping down that house that’s your problem next to you,” Lynch said. “And we have this problem all over town. We probably have 40 to 50 properties that are severely blighted. We have this property (at 706) on our Top 10 of very bad properties, but at the same, $25,000 to us is a huge amount of money.”
“It’s a huge amount to me,” Janis Maziekas said.
“We raised taxes two mills specifically for blight, and two mills brings in approximately $38,000 to $42,000, depending on whether it’s a good year or not,” Lynch said. “That allows us to maybe get one, maybe two, down, but we also have to hang on to a considerable amount for emergencies. Let’s face it, that in the past five years, we’ve had a huge fire and four collapses. This is something that’s killing a lot of boroughs around here. We’re doing what we can.”
“We really sympathize with what you’re going through,” Councilwoman Patti A. Schnitzius said. “None of us would want this to happen to ourselves either. You are on the list. No one wants to see you go through this. It is unfortunate that when things fall down and it’s an emergency, we have to act on that right away because it is an emergency situation.”
Borough solicitor Michael A. O’Pake explained the borough’s primary goal is to get to the property owner to correct the problems.
“The first thing the borough tries to do in this situation is go after the property owner,” O’Pake said. “It’s ultimately the property owner’s responsibility. Bill (Killian) has indicated to me that right now there are arrest warrants out for the owner of that property. It’s a corporation based out of California. Under those circumstances, our first obligation is to try to make the property owner responsible. We tried that and it didn’t work. Next is to spend money. It all comes down to money. We raised taxes two mills specifically designated for blight and situations like these. We have money to do that, but it’s going to take time. It’s not going to happen overnight. We appreciate your comments keeping us informed about it, and there is nothing wrong voicing your opinion to do that.”
Janis Maziekas proposed that she withhold paying her taxes and place the funds in an escrow account to be released when the problems are solved.
“You could do that but then you would lose your house to taxes,” O’Pake said.
“We’ve basically taken this as far as we can short of ripping it down,” Lynch said.