The City of Williamsport is going to be working with STEP Inc. on inspection and construction services for emergency single-family owner-occupied housing rehabilitation projects.

This new initiative was made possible by the city Department of Community and Economic Development and Planning asking City Council for permission through resolutions that were approved recently.

The first resolution rejected all quotes received for emergency occupied housing rehabilitation housing inspection services related to Community Development Block Grant-funded owner-occupied housing rehabilitation.

Austin Daily, department housing manager, said the resolution allows the city to reject the singular quote it received in the request for quotes last month.

“We didn’t have any other items to judge it against,” he told the council.

The resolution would also permit the department to seek out additional ways to conduct these inspection services, as the homeowners in this program have been waiting, unfortunately, far longer than most of them and the city anticipated when the program is intended to be an emergency rehab program.

“Do we think that we can find an alternative?” asked Councilwoman Liz Miele.

She was informed that would be the next item as the city wanted to go out and proactively seek what other resources might be available.

The next approved resolution was to enter an agreement to do these services and so council passed it to approve the adoption of CDBG-funded emergency owner-occupied

single-family housing rehabilitation policy and procedure.

The key addition is the city wanted to work with STEP Inc. to perform emergency inspections for those in this program. STEP has its own in-house crews that are able to handle this matter and they would be able to perform the work on behalf of the city.

In doing so, Daily estimated the city would be able to cut the time period on going out for construction bids, and STEP officials would be able to go in and do the home walkthrough, and then mobilize a crew immediately afterwards.

The city is planning then to use its 2024-2025 CDBG funds that were previously allocated to the emergency rehab program.

The funds will be used and STEP will be a subrecipient so that it can administer the program for inspection and construction services on the city’s behalf.

STEP was already briefed on the homes that are currently in the program and once those three homes are taken care of it can begin the process of helping other homeowners on the list.

Having STEP involved now will be able to provide more accurate construction pricing, Daily said.

“I’m glad that we can perform these emergency services for them and I am glad that we figured it out and we can get this done,” Miele said.

Codes offices anticipate relocation

In a matter involving the Bureau of Codes, the city is going to purchase internet service from River Valley Internet to add to the proposed Bureau of Codes office, which is anticipating moving into the defunct fire station at 200 Reighard Ave.

Kris Black, city Information Technology coordinator, said the service is in anticipation of the codes department’s relocation.

“We’ve used River Valley Internet on a number of different projects for the city and they’ve always been really great pricing wise and performance wise,” Black said.

This will be a cost of $250 a month over a two-year contract with an installed fee of $500 dollars. This would be paid for through the general fund budget.

Miele asked what did that mean coming from the general fund?

City finance director Jamie Livermore explained the city will take the rent money that would be for the codes department that will not be used for that and put into internet service and smaller items at the future office of the Bureau of Codes at the building on Reighard Avenue in the west end near Reach Road.