Uniontown works on blight
The Uniontown Redevelopment Authority is continuing its blight eradication program, voting to purchase one property and accepting the donation of another Wednesday.
The authority agreed to pay Carloda and Archie Miracle $2,800 for 52 Lincoln St., a dilapidated vacant house that the authority plans to demolish. The authority is also paying all legal and filing fees. The Miracles are responsible for paying the property’s back taxes, which redevelopment authority executive director Mark Rafail said are nearly equal to the price of the property.
The authority also voted to accept the donation of 232 Evan St. from property owner Rusty Mechling. Rafail said there had been a fire at the property, and the house will be demolished. The authority will pay the legal and filing fees for the property transfer.
In both cases, Rafail said, the vacant lots will be prepared for sale. Rafail said Coldwell Banker has had some success selling other lots for the redevelopment authority.
Rafail said letters are going out to the owners of other vacant, dilapidated properties informing residents that the authority is interested in acquiring the lots to eliminate blight. Residents are being asked to respond within seven days so the authority knows whether other actions need to be taken.
The authority also voted to take full responsibility for the utilities at 71 and 77 Lemon St., two new homes built by Threshold Housing for the city. The houses have been completed for about three months, Rafail said, but have not yet been sold.
In other matters, Rafail reported that a city employee will be working with the authority 20 hours a week to help with bookkeeping to correct some audit deficiencies.
“Because of the audit results, we had to come up with a corrective action plan, and the plan is to have a city employee, who will be trained by the auditor, handle the books for the authority.
Rafail said work continues to be done to restore the decorative street lighting to the downtown area. Rafail said the lights did work for one evening after a series of repairs, but were out of service a day later.