NEW FLORENCE, Pa. — At New Florence Borough’s last council meeting, an ordinance was proposed that said neighbors would pay a $500 fine for not clearing their sidewalks.
Now the borough council president tells Channel 11 that is not true, and he wants to set the record straight.
“The $500 was in there, but we had no intention of making the fine $500,” Borough Council President Jason Beatty said.
He said the ordinance proposal used fictitious numbers that the council will now have the chance to edit. But after seeing the $500 fine in a recent news article, neighbors were nervous.
“We are all on a fixed income, and most of us are retired,” Rosemary Csehoski said.
“I could see maybe a $50 fine or something like that,” Robert Berkhamer said.
“We are currently in the process of reviewing said ordinance to see what we want to do with verbiage and fine amounts,” Beatty said. “And we have made no determination as to what that is going to be, but I can promise you it’s not going to be $500.”
Beatty said that although it’s not $500, they are still planning on implementing a fine. It’s meant to help target absentee property owners.
“They own a house but don’t reside here. The homes are empty and we have, right now, no way to go after them for them to have snow removal in front of their property,” Beatty said.
He said members of the council have been working with the Westmoreland County Land Bank to clean up abandoned properties, and the fine would be a continuation of that.
Council is set to meet again on March 17 to discuss what the fine will look like.
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