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MILL HALL -- Changes may be coming to Mill Hall Borough's motor vehicle nuisance ordinance.
Council approved sending proposed amendments to its solicitor Paul Ryan of Coploff, Ryan, Welch & Houser for review.
Four amendments were proposed to council by its Police and Safety Committee including:
-- Vehicle Owner has an abandoned vehicle on real property or another.
-- Vehicle registration is expired for greater than one calendar year.
-- Vehicle inspection is expired for greater than one calendar year.
-- Vehicle is contributing to blight conditions in Mill Hall Borough.
Police Chief Brandon Coleman told council the classifications for abandoned vehicles in the current ordinance, which was created in 1969, aren't as viable today.
In the current ordinance, which only saw one amendment in 1990, there are multiple physical defects such as broken antenna, broken windshield, flat tires and rusted bumpers and frames, that aren't as common, Coleman said.
"We have a lot of vehicles that don't have a lot of the aspects of our ordinance, like the flat tires and all that, where the registration and inspection part would be a big help to us," he said.
Councilwoman Karen Houser asked if one year after inspection may be too much time.
"I think that's too long to have junk sitting around," Houser said.
"Here's the thing we're looking at -- one year, how can you go in front of a district magistrate as the owner of a vehicle and say 'oh I've been working on trying to fix it.' It's been over a year, you're not going to fix it or you haven't tried hard enough or something," Coleman replied.
Councilwoman Rainelle Wallace voiced her approval of the time frame.
"I think this is a good grace period. I mean, you'd think there's people that probably drive uninspected for awhile already," she said.
Council President Tony Walker noted a few vehicles in the borough he knows that could be considered abandoned per the new ordinance. He said their inspections ran out as long ago as 2017.
"Looking at our ordinance as it is written, it does not give us much teeth into some of the abandoned vehicles and some of the other junk that's been laying around the borough for some time," he said.
The changes will be forwarded to Ryan who would create a new ordinance for council to consider at a future meeting, Secretary Brandi Yost said.
Councilman Dan McCloskey was absent from Tuesday's meeting held at the Mill Hall Borough Fire Hall.
In other business council approved multiple public works related items including:
-- The purchase of a pipe inspection camera kit for sewer line inspection for $2,731.65 from Ohio Power Tool. The kit includes the camera, monitor, two batteries and a charger.
-- Requested Public Works Director Ryan Kunes approach Pine Creek Township about using their street sweeper in the future. The borough typically uses the city of Lock Haven's but Kunes said they're backed up due to projects with PennDOT. The earliest the city could rent the project is end of June or July, Kunes said. The cost to use Pine Creek Township's would be roughly $40 more but Yost didn't have an exact quote for the city would charge.
-- Approved the rental of a vacuum trailer to help clean catch basins in the borough. Kunes said the trailer would help suck out debris from the catch basins faster. He said it takes employees two months to clean them out by hand. The trailer from Sunbelt Rental will cost $2,100 for two weeks.