The Lycoming County Housing Authority approved a lease agreement Thursday with the City of Williamsport that will allow the city to install three utility poles and mount surveillance cameras on them in Flanigan Park.
The initiative, which will allow city police to monitor the park for criminal activity, will be paid for with federal Homeland Security funding. The city plans to install the cameras in the park, the Newberry neighborhood and other parts of the city, authority Executive Director MaryLyn Severson said.
In other business, the authority adopted a resolution awarding a contract to Yoder Builders Inc. for exterior renovation work at the Penn Vale apartments. The company bid about $280,000 for the work.
The authority approved the submission of the Section 32 Homeownership Plan to the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. The plan allows home buyers to lease a home in the public housing system for up to five years before buying the home, Severson said.
"They don't have to take five years," she said. "If they are ready to buy the property before that, they can."
Once the property is sold, it is taken off the public housing rolls, she said.
Severson said HUD officials from the agency's Philadelphia office recently spent two days tour authority facilities. They left impressed with the condition of the authority's housing facilities and the services provided residents of those facilities, she said.
Of particular note was the caring manner in which authority staff treated residents, she said.
