By Gina Morton
RIVERSIDE — Owners of several blighted properties will be notified that they must fix up their homes or face legal consequences.
Borough Council members took action Monday night to move to the next step with their property maintenance list, which would be to contact property owners and give them a deadline to make needed repairs.
After an evaluation of six homes by Building Inspectors Underwriters Inc. of Pennsylvania, council members have chosen to move forward and send letters to the owners of structures that are not in compliance. Some of the homes have not been compliant for several years.
Voting in favor were Vice President Barry Faust, Barbara Kriner, Gladys Magill, James Pursel and Dale Whitenight. President Peter Fleming and member Robert Betts were absent.
The council declined to provide the addresses or owners’ names until after the letters are distributed.
Faust said all the homes basically are abandoned. “They are in bad shape, and the borough would like to see them fixed up,” he said Tuesday. An alternative could be demolition.
Faust and the council hope that through this process, property owners will begin to make changes to the buildings.
“We’re hoping they will fix the properties, do something,” he said. “It’s going to take a long time to do this, but we’ve had complaints from neighbors and others. We have to do something.”
