Trending
The days of a single property diminishing the quality of life of an entire block or neighborhood are over in South Williamsport Borough, if a newly created regional team has anything to say about it.
Council this week authorized the Susquehanna Mutual Aid Regional Team (SMART) to enforce the borough's property maintenance codes, effective immediately.
"Many in South Williamsport are very concerned about the number of homes that have been neglected. This agreement will ensure that extra manpower is in a position to correct these issues. I believe our homeowners should expect and deserve to have their neighbor's homes maintained. We have many beautiful homes in South Williamsport but it only takes a few to have a negative impact on the neighborhood," said Dave Geise, council president.
SMART members will not receive additional compensation for the building maintenance patrol.
SMART staff assigned to Station 5, South Williamsport Fire Department, and Loyalsock Township Fire Co. Chief Mike Minnier will conduct daily patrols across the borough identifying properties with code violations such as high grass or weeds, accumulated trash and garbage, uninspected/unregistered vehicles, broken or missing windows and structural dilapidation, the terms state.
Responsible parties will then be contacted and given notice to remediate or be cited and fined, the terms also state.
The enforcement of the borough's property
maintenance code will be methodical across all three wards and unprecedented relative to enforcement actions
imposed by SMART, said Steven W. Cappelli, borough manager and director of Public Safety.
SMART began in August as a cost efficient way to supplement efforts for fire and emergency medical response for the South Williamsport Fire Department.
It has five firefighters in all -- four firefighters and SMART Supervisor Minnier.
Two firefighters are at the township station and two at the borough. Should there be a fire or other medical emergency, the SMART staff will respond to that as a priority.
Minnier said SMART has worked well.
Borough police will communicate with SMART staff on property addresses to identify.
While police have an agreement with neighboring DuBoistown, SMART property maintenance patrols will not be done at this time in that borough, Cappelli said.
Meanwhile, the borough has received a $101,000 grant from the state Commission on Crime and Delinquency to replace all South Williamsport Borough Police Department, mobile and base station radios with new units capable of transmitting and receiving on both analog and digital frequencies -- a total of 18.
The borough's current radios are 15 years old and analog capable only.
Lastly, Cappelli reported the SWPD K-9 program fundraising to date has surpassed $24,000 with additional pledges forthcoming.
"Our cost to purchase the K-9 and have our handler trained is $19,500. Officer Seth Stropp leaves for North Carolina on Sunday to begin his six weeks of handler training," Cappelli said.