MARK NANCE/Sun-Gazette 1517 Memorial Ave.

It could take $100,000 or more to pay for removal of blighted properties in Williamsport, city officials estimated Tuesday.

The $100,000 figure was presented at the blighted property review committee meeting at the Trade and Transit Centre II.

“I am going to ask the mayor to put $100,000 aside in a budget line item,” said Joseph Gerardi, city codes administrator. “We might not have to use it all, but it would be good to have it,” he said.

Attempts to reach Mayor Derek Slaughter were not successful. Neither were attempts to get with Council President Randall J. Allison on Gerardi’s request.

The committee is formed to enable the Redevelopment Authority to acquire by purchase, gift, bequest, eminent domain or otherwise, any blighted property, according to city ordinance.

The authority has the power to hold, clear, manage or dispose of the blighted property for residential and related use, the ordinance said.

“We have to speed up the process of getting these properties on the open market,” said Councilman Vincent Pulizzi, a committee member.

Gerardi said the city’s problem has always been a lack of finances for that purpose.

It was the first meeting of the new board which consists of: Patrick Marty, who was elected chairman; Gerardi, Pulizzi, Janet McDermott, Tony Nardi, Anne Macdonald and Jennifer Wilson.

Pulizzi said he wanted to be involved in the committee to help the city to manage and seize these properties, especially those lingering on lien lists with no improvements over the years.

“My wife and I walk and see properties,” Pulizzi said. “We want to get these properties into the hands of developers and onto the market,” he said. “That would be the city’s best return on its investment.”

The committee was handed a list of blighted properties that were removed from the list in 2019 and those that remain on the list.

It looked over the lists and concluded that if the properties are purchased outright by the city, there needed to be a deed restriction that required the owners to have them fixed up and repaired to the city code.

“We want to avoid building permits that go on for two or three years without anything done,” Nardi said.

The committee is meeting next at 10 a.m. July 15 at the Trade and Transit Centre II Ross Room.