Tyrone Borough has decided to use general funds for the demolition of a private property at 1113 Washington Avenue.
On Dec. 10, 2004, the owner of the house, Mr. & Mrs. Terry Shaw, relinquished ownership of the property.
In his December 2004 report to council, Code Enforcement Officer Tom Lang said, “Due to the poor condition of this structure and obvious safety issues involved, the borough felt this was the quickest way to achieve demolition of this structure.”
At one point the borough had planned to use CDBG funds to demolish the property.
It held a hearing for the purpose obtaining public comment about the borough’s desire to reprogram already approved CDBG funds. The borough wanted to take $10,000 in already approved funds and reprogram the money to be used for the removal of spot blighted properties. At a subsequent meeting, council approved a motion to have the funds reprogrammed for that purpose.
In December, Lang said the borough was awaiting approval from the State of Pennsylvania Preservation Office to utilize the CDBG funds. However, Lang told The Daily Herald this week that due to other state regulations, the borough decided to use money from its general funds account instead to demolish the property.
Lang said the cost of the project is estimated at $4,800. He said the borough had hoped to do the work by the end of the month, but the weather is now a factor as to when the work can be started and completed.
Lang said the reprogrammed $10,000 in CDBG funds will remain available for use on other spot blight properties in the borough.
Regarding other code issues, in his December report, Lang said the borough was contacted by Mr. William Loner about properties at 978-980 Pennsylvania Avenue. He was seeking information about the possibility of a motel being built near Pennsylvania Avenue and 10th Street.
According to Lang, Loner said he did not want to spend money to repair a wall on the structure which is in violation of the borough’s property maintenance code if this property was going to purchased and the building demolished in the near future. Loner was asking about the possibility of being reimbursed funds spent to repair the wall at the time of the possible acquisition of the property.
Lang said in his report the borough contacted the Altoona Blair County Development Corporation to seek answers to Loner’s questions. Yesterday, Lang told The Daily Herald, the hotel is not “pending” as of this time and Loner would be responsible for bringing the wall into compliance with the borough’s code.
Lang’s December report included information on two other property issues.
First, he reported a Dec. 2, 2004 hearing before the Blair County Court of Common Pleas regarding exterior property maintenance violations at 921 Logan Avenue was continued.
Yesterday, Lang said the hearing had not been rescheduled. The owner of the property, David Corneal, wanted to appeal Magisterial Judge Fred Miller’s original decision.
Since then Corneal has agreed finish the clean-up the exterior property and pay a $100 fine before the matter was heard in the county courts in exchange for no further prosecution of the violations. Lang said he had since been out to the property to check on the cleanup work and he thought it would be “highly unlikely” if the issue went any further in the court system other than to possibly indicate an agreement had been reached between the borough and Mr. Corneal.
Lang also advised council in December that Ace Fix-It Hardware of 1115 Logan Avenue was seeking a variance from setback requirements to construct and display a metal carport in the required rear yard area of the property.
A hearing was held before the Zoning Hearing Board on Tuesday and the request for the variance was approved.
