Citizen Requests and Thefts at the Library Among Topics at Whitehall Council Meeting

No Good Deed ...

resident Glenn Proie of 4676 Echo Glen Drive has been cutting the lawn and trimming hedges at a vacant property at 4673 Echo Glen for years. At a Whitehall council meeting on Wednesday night, Proie asked council members to consider changing borough ordinances to help citizens like himself with negligent neighbors.

"How can you expect neighbors to cut the grass at their own expense?" Proie asked the council.

Ironically, Proie's work to maintain his neighbor's property has made it impossible for the borough to cite the property's owners for violations.

"Legally, the government cannot go onto private property until there's a violation," Whitehall Mayor James F. Nowalk said. "You have two options: Let the violation occur, or continue to cut (4673's) grass."

Proie found neither of these options to be appealing since both meant allowing the lawn to grow to over 10 inches tall.

Councilman Philip Lahr suggested having the borough's assistant code enforcer going out to take a look at the property in question to see if there was anything that the council could do.

Online Ordinances?

Proie also raised the question of whether it would be possible to post borough ordinances on the borough website rather than require people to come in to the borough office.

"The problem is that some people don't understand (ordinances)," Lahr said. "Jack (Whitehall's Code Enforcement Officer Jack Sims) feels it's better off to come to him to explain it."

Nowalk, however, disagreed, saying that the point of the borough having a website was to make information easily accessible.

Councilman Robert McKown said that the real impediment to posting ordinances online was that they had been typed in WordPerfect instead of Microsoft Word.

"It's been an administration problem," McKown said.

"Actually, you can put the straight scan (on the website)," Proie suggested.

Nowalk agreed.

The issue was assigned to the borough's administrative committee for review.

Heat Alert

In his mayoral report, Nowalk called attention to the current and forecasted hot weather.

"The extreme temperatures and high humidity pose a health risk, especially to the elderly," Nowalk said. "The borough asks that people periodically check on neighbors and shut-ins."

Let There Be Light ... or Not

Borough Manager James E. Leventry said that a resident had requested that a street light be installed on that resident's street.

"The genesis of the request was that someone had hit a deer," Leventry said. "There are not a lot of street lights in the borough due to the expense (of installing and maintaining them)."

"We need to establish a policy or procedure for assessing the criteria for meeting such requests," McKown said. "Let's face the cost factor."

There was a consensus among council members that installing a street light on one street would "open a can of worms."

McKown offered to take up the issue with the borough's public-safety committee.

Most Wanted Cookbooks

Council members also discussed the recent theft of more than 100 cookbooks from the .

"Before the cookbooks, other things were being stolen," McKown said.

The library will be looking at options for better security.