Tyrone Code enforcement officer Tom Lang issued a new property maintenance violation notice in early January regarding a downtown property after the owner had sought answers to questions about the building’s status after a being issued a compliance order in November of 2004.
In his December report to council, Lang said the borough was contacted by Mr. William Loner about properties at 978-980 Pennsylvania Avenue. He was seeking information about the possibility of a motel being built which might include the site of the property.
According to Lang, Loner said he did not want to spend money to repair a wall on the structure which is in violation of the borough’s property maintenance code if the building was going to purchased and demolished in the near future. Loner asked about the possibility of being reimbursed funds spent to repair the wall at the time of the possible acquisition of the property.
Lang said in his report the borough contacted the Altoona Blair County Development Corporation to seek answers to Loner’s questions. In January, Lang told The Daily Herald, the hotel is not “pending” and Loner would be responsible for bringing the wall into compliance with the borough’s code.
In a January report, Lang said based on information received from ABCD, no definite acquisition date had been set to purchase any properties in regard to the motel.
The exterior rear brick wall of the building was described as being in poor condition in Lang’s January report. The maintenance violation notice explained the information from ABCD and included the issuance of a compliance order to repair the wall by Feb. 7.
The Jan. 5 letter sent to Loner was in follow up to a compliance order dated Nov. 8, 2004.
In the January letter, Lang said the borough had issued a building permit in February of 2004 to complete work needed to bring the building into compliance.
Lang explained Loner was also in process of clearing up property maintenance violations at 1401 Pennsylvania Avenue at the time the borough issued the permit for the 978-980 Pennsylvania Avenue location.
Lang noted Loner wanted to use the same contractor at each site, so the borough reissued the permit numerous times. Lang said no work had been observed at either address over a three-month period in late 2004. He also said an exterior inspection indicated no work had begun on the exterior wall at 978-980 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Lang said a report from Loner’s engineer explained the wall was in poor condition and was separating from the rest of the building. Lang said Loner’s engineer recommended a new exterior wall be constructed on the interior side of the existing brick wall. The engineer recommended the existing brick wall be attached to the new wall or should be removed. Lang said the engineer further recommended the best solution would be the total removal of the existing brick wall.
Lang said he had increasing concerns about the possible collapse of the wall because of the eventual onset of winter conditions. Lang also said there were numerous interior violations which the borough had held off on doing anything about until the exterior wall was repaired to ensure the safety of any workers removing violations from the upper floors of the structure.
Last week, Lang said Loner had come into the code enforcement office to secure the necessary permits to cure the violations prior to Feb. 7.
He said a one-month permit was issued and around the time the permit would expire he would be checking to see if work was progressing. If it is, then the permits would be renewed until work is completed. Lang said the building permit was due to expire on March 7.
“Obviously, I don’t think work has started there yet,” said Lang during the middle of last week.
However, Lang said it was hard to tell by observing the outside since the engineer for Loner had recommended work commence from the interior of the building to solve the problem.
“Like I told him (Loner), if work doesn’t commence there, then the borough is going to have to follow through with legal proceedings.”
When asked about the borough’s stance with property maintenance issues in general, Lang said, “the borough is after compliance, we are not after money through fines, that’s not the way our code office works.”
Contractor Eric Dasher who had done work for Loner at the 1401 Pennsylvania Avenue property was contacted this morning to see if he would be doing work at the 978-980 Pennsylvania Avenue location. He was also asked if work had commenced as of today. Dasher said he was not able to comment on the subject.
Yesterday, a call was also placed to Mr. Loner and a message left with Mrs. Loner which was not returned by press time this morning.
