Ligonier residents fed up with dilapidated homes

LIGONIER, Pa. — People in Ligonier tell Channel 11 they are fed up with dilapidated homes in the borough.

Stanley Brandon is one of those neighbors. He lives across the street from two homes on North Fairfield Street, which he calls an eyesore.

“This is nice here, but if you cross the street, it’s not so nice,” Brandon said.

He said he’s lived in his apartment for the last five years, and these homes have just been getting worse ever since.

“You’re supposed to keep your place reasonable, but they don’t even bother,” Brandon said. “They don’t even cut the grass, you know?”

Both of the homes in question on North Fairfield Street are vacant. Another neighbor, who didn’t want to be shown on camera but spoke to Channel 11′s Andrew Havranek said she worries about diseases from rodents.

She said some neighbors have seen stray cats, rats, and more.

“There are groundhogs in the neighborhood,” she said. “There are skunks in the neighborhood that I was thinking, who knows, they could be over there somewhere too, anywhere where they can burrow and hide.”

Ligonier Borough is working to fix these issues.

Councilman Matt Smith said it’s not something they’re used to dealing with, but they have sent letters to property owners. He said sometimes the letters get something done with the homes, but not always. They can’t just demolish them. They don’t own the properties, and it’s expensive.

In a statement, he said, “Ligonier borough hasn’t really had too many blighted properties that we’ve had a ton of trouble with in the past. Typically someone with the borough (code enforcement, mayor, etc) is able to talk to the owners and work something out to get the situation rectified. These properties on N. Fairfield in question have had letters sent to them notifying them of the issues previously. Sometimes something will get a temporary fix enough to avoid action against them. Since this situation is not something we face too often, we are still in the process of figuring out the next steps we need to take, and we are doing some more research to find out. The plan right now is for our Code Enforcement officer (Karl Horman) to send out a new batch of letters stating all of the issues to the registered owners. They will be given a certain amount of time for a response, and if there is no response or remedy, citations will be filed.”

In the meantime?

“Don’t get bit by the woodchuck,” Brandon said.

If you live in Ligonier and have a complaint about a dilapidated home, you can file that complaint with the borough.

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