BROOKVILLE, Pa. (EYT) – The Brookville Borough Council is considering an ordinance to address the issue of blighted properties.
Brookville Borough Manager Dana Schreckengost presented the council with two “Quality of Life” ordinances recently passed by other municipalities for the council to review.
According to Schreckengost, the idea to present this to the council came from a meeting held by Jefferson County officials last month to help address the issue of blight, defined as the physical decline of property, neighborhood, or a city.
Though a Quality of Life ordinance has not been drafted for approval by Brookville Borough, Schreckengost emphasized that other municipalities have passed them to help deal with aging properties.
One ordinance presented to the Brookville Council came from Reynoldsville. Schreckengost said that this ordinance was created by a previous code enforcement officer who wrote down all of the things that were not covered under an ordinance in Reynoldsville and this helped to clean up the town’s appearance.
Schreckengost and Councilman Dave Ferringer said they believe that passing a Quality of Life ordinance in Brookville could help to prevent blight before it even begins.
“We virtually all live in a neighborhood where there is a blighted property,” Ferringer said.
“We’re the stewards for the borough as council members,” Ferringer said. “If we don’t maintain what we have, we’re losing property values, tax dollars, and a piece of property per se.”
“The single biggest investment most families make is in their home,” Ferringer said, adding that many who purchase homes in this area expect the value of the home to go up in their lifetime. He believes that living near a blighted property can negatively impact this hope.
“The town (of Brookville) – it’s not something that I’m very proud of in that respect,” Ferringer said. “Nobody else is gonna rebuild them when those houses go down.”
Ferringer later said that there were ordinances on the books to deal with blight, but that these ordinances are not always properly enforced.
“Warnings don’t work, you have to get into peoples pockets,” Ferringer said. “If we don’t do anything, we’re not being good stewards to the taxpayers and the property owners.”
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