SUNBURY — The city's 99 percent flood-proof for a decade, according to a new report by the Army Corps of Engineers.
After an evaluation of the city's flood control system, the Corps said there's only a 1 percent chance of failure between now and 2020, Mayor David Persing announced at City Council's regular meeting Monday.
Council voted unanimously to advertise for a part-time purchasing and payables clerk due to a large amount of paperwork required of the clerk because of the riverfront project, but tabled the matter of hiring a police officer. The department is down one officer following the suicide of Cpl. Michael Miller.
Council also agreed to move forward on a comprehensive plan for the former Celotex site and other industrial property that has fallen into disuse.
Hill section residents Donna Swanger and Pam Hollenbach complained about deplorable conditions of properties on 12th Street between Race Street and Highland Avenue. Hollenbach said residences they can see from their homes have loose shingles that blow over to their homes, broken windows, and five and six dogs each that are not walked on a daily basis so the interiors contain dog feces.
Code enforcement officer Mike Rhoads said the descriptions were correct, and he knows of the properties.
But he added: "They know what they have to do to get away with what they're doing."
Councilman Joe Bartello III, who supervises the city's public safety functions, said the properties can be declared public nuisances, but often such cases are throw out in court.
"The laws don't have a lot of teeth in them," he said.
Hollenbach said, due to the code department being understaffed, the properties have not been inspected more than two times in six years.
At a work session before the meeting, council members Kevin Troup and Jim Eister and former code part-timer Russ Wertz, along with Rhoads, tried to get Bartello to recant his statement, published May 2, that the department was 1,000 inspections behind.
Rhoads said the department was 1,835 inspections behind in June, but had closed that gap to 245 — except there were 615 re-inspections "in process."
Wertz also complained that Bartello said he and another worker were fired. Wertz said they were "suspended until the outcome of reviewing the department budget."
Bartello said after the meeting he will write them all an apology.
There are only 860 inspections waiting, he said.
As for Wertz, he said he and the other part-time worker were being paid $14 and $13 an hour to do nothing but drive around and look for high grass. And they both worked full-time for the Municipal Authority. He said the money they were paid could be better spent.
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