Times Observer photo by Josh Cotton The county’s Blighted Property Review Committee will be asking the owners of this property — 25 Center St. in Clarendon — to provide a plan for the future of the property at the February meeting.

Notice to property owners is a key part of the county’s process for addressing blighted properties.

So while the county’s Blighted Property Review Committee was limited to sending invitations to the February meeting to four owners during Thursday’s meeting, they took time to review where the properties stand and the conditions that brought the properties to the committee inthe first place.

“We don’t want to take these properties over,” Paul Pascuzzi, the committe’s chair, said. “(We) want them to be productive and not be a hazard to the health and safety of people in our community.”

These properties, he suggested, fall into that health and safety risk realm.

The two before the committee for the first time — 6 Railroad St. and 25 Center St. — are both located in Clarendon Borough.

Pascuzzi, also a borough councilman in Clarendon, said two other properties — 3 and 8 Railroad St. — have been demolished and said 6 has been empty and abandoned for a couple of years.

He said neighbors have express worry about the condition of the property as a fire hazard but told the committee the property could probably be rehabilitated.

“The problem is we don’t know who owns it,” he said, explaining to the committee that the property was the subject of a reverse mortgage

At the Center St. property, Pascuzzi said the borough has addressed “multiple nuisance violations.

He said the property has been uninhabited and abandoned for “many, many years” with reports from neighbors of vermin entering and exiting the building.

The committee also moved to invite the owners of 1465 Rt. 62, Pleasant Twp., which sold at tax sale, and 109 Oak St., Sheffield, to the next meeting, as well.

TOWNSHIP JOINING BLIGHT PROGRAM

County Planner Dan Glotz said Columbus Township wants to enter the program and has passed the ordinance needed to do just that.

“We may begin to see some properties coming from that municipality,” he said.

“That is some good news,” Pascuzzi added.