Aug 23, 2017 3 min read

MONESSEN – Efforts to rid the city of blighted properties was a main topic for Monessen Council at its meeting Tuesday.

While discussing the unanimous vote to change a property slated for demolition under the Westmoreland County demolition program from 684 McKee to 612-614 McKee, Councilman Ronald Chiaravalle said city officials are working diligently to demolish the seven houses currently on the list for demolition.

Chiaravalle also brought up an issue the city is having with Section 8 housing, which provides subsidized rent for low-income indiviiduals. The program is paid for with federal housing funds through the Westmoreland County Housing Authority, which administers the program.

Chiaravalle said the housing authority inspects the properties that are eligible for Section 8 rental and issues a certificate to the landlord.

He said letters are being issued to some landlords, who he said are rehabilitating and maintaining their properties, informing them that their Section 8 certifications are being revoked or denied because of nearby blight. He said he recently learned of two landlords being refused these Section 8 certifications because of blight near their properties, resulting in the eviction of tenants.

He said the city can address only the blighted properties that it acquires through a repository program and other means. Mayor Lou Mavrakis added that the city can’t just demolish any house within its limits but has to follow a process that involves getting the house from the repository and finding money for demolition.

“We want to clean this town up. We want to make these neighborhoods safe and we can’t do it when we are getting this type of push-back for whatever reason,” Chiaravalle said. He said he would like to call a meeting between the city council, the county commissioners and county housing authority and get answers on why these landlords seem to be targeted.

“We’ll get to the bottom of it,” Chiaravalle said.

Mavrakis said it’s a bad situation for the housing authority to be chasing out responsible property owners who maintain properties, and agreed that council needs to further investigate the matter.

In other business, Chiaravalle said he received a call on Monday from a public works employee informing him that castings, rectangular steel frames, that were being temporarily stored in front of the salt dome at the city garage had been stolen. He said he then called four local scrap yards to give them a description of the castings and let them know they were stolen.

He said Webster Metals called him back within an hour and police were dispatched to the scrap yard. He said the six castings are worth several hundred dollars each, but only worth roughly $20 in scrap.

The officer was able to apprehend a suspect who was unloading the stolen property and charges were filed.