Code enforcement and the city’s finances were topics of concern
for Bradford residents at Tuesday’s Bradford City Council
meeting.

Bradford resident Brad Mangel addressed council about the state
of the city’s finances, explaining it was about this time last year
that city controller Ron Orris warned council of the financial
problems the city was facing.

“What is the situation?” Mangel asked, inquiring if the city
will be facing a year-end deficit again this year.

Mayor Tom Riel said it’s too early to tell, but said for this
area, the recession sure isn’t over.

“It’s probably not going to be good. Funding (from the state)
will probably be cut more. Things haven’t turned around and
probably aren’t going to get better,” Riel said.

He added that all city departments have been working to keep
costs down. For example, Police Chief Chris Lucco said in the past
two weeks, the police have had no regular overtime.

City Clerk John Peterson said, “Revenues are tracking on pace.
Expenditures are a little less (than forecasted) and we haven’t had
anything shocking show up.”

Councilman Rick Benton said, “In the short run, we’re relatively
well off. In the long run, conditions are no better.” He said
health care costs and pensions will continue to rise, but revenues
are not.

“There will be huge adjustments we’re going to have to make,”
Benton said.

Councilman Jim Evans said, “I believe we need to move ahead with
the Early Intervention program.”

The state Department of Community and Economic Development
offers the program, which provides an outside consultant to review
a municipality’s finances and recommend improvements. “We need to
explore it soon,” Evans said.

Riel agreed, adding, “The city could only benefit from outside
assistance.”

The other main area of concern for local residents seemed to be
the continuing issue of code enforcement.

Local business man and property owner John Kohler addressed
council, asking about an April article in The Era regarding $14,000
in fines being levied against a landlord in the city.

“How much did you collect?” he asked Councilman Ross Neidich,
who oversees code enforcement from his council position.

“I can’t answer that right now,” Neidich said, explaining he was
meeting with the code enforcement officials today. He said the
cases aren’t always simple, as they are taken through the court
system for enforcement.

“I’m just trying to get what the “enforcement” means in code
enforcement,” Kohler said, questioning the stiffness of
penalties.

He added that landlords shouldn’t be targeted as the only ones
contributing to blight, as many individual properties are in poor
condition.

Neidich agreed and said, “Unfortunately, we have people who
don’t seem to care what their property looks like. We go after
them. We don’t always get a positive result.”

Neidich acknowledged that the majority of landlords in the city
follow the law.

“We have a goodly number of landlords who keep up their
properties,” he said. Neidich said he has spoken with code
enforcement officer George Corignani about the “two or three we’re
targeting as habitual non-compliant landlords.”

Kohler asked if there was enough “teeth” in the current
ordinances to ensure compliance.

“The ordinance is new,” solicitor Mark Hollenbeck said. “It’s
stronger than it used to be.” There’s been a number of cases
recently when property owners have demolished the buildings
themselves rather than face stiffer penalties from the city, the
attorney explained.

Riel said he believes the ordinance should be stronger. In cases
where one landlord is habitually non-compliant, they should be
prevented from continuing to do business with other properties
until they are again in good standing with the city, Riel said.

Councilman Fred Proper said council has asked Greg Henry,
counsel for the city’s Board of Health, to put together a
progressive policy that stiffens the penalties each time a property
is cited. The final step means a lien on the property.

Bradford business owner looking to expand restaurant

A Bradford business owner is borrowing money for the city to
invest in his restaurant in the city’s downtown Historic
District.

At Tuesday’s meeting of Bradford City Council, the councilmen
approved a program loan agreement between the Office of Economic
and Community Development and Joseph Frombach Jr., owner of John
William’s European Pastry on Mechanic Street.

Frombach is seeking $100,000 from the economic development loan
program for renovations to his property.

Sara Andrews, executive director of the OECD, explained, “He’s
doing some major renovations.” The renovations, she said, include
redoing the kitchen, adding seating, creating an outdoor space,
installing siding on the building and even looking into a weekend
market.

Renovations to the popular restaurant, located next to the
Tunungwant Creek, were included in the city’s Master Plan.

Another improvement discussed at the meeting was the first phase
of the downtown gateway and streetscape improvement project.
Andrews explained to council that the project will begin at the Elm
Street off ramps of northbound U.S. Route 219. A $30,000 grant from
the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, coupled with
Community Development Block Grant funds, will be used to pay for
engineering.

Council accepted a proposal at the meeting from E.G. & G.
engineers for the design of the first phase of the project.

Andrews explained the project is aimed to “improve the
appearance as you come in to the city. The mayor (Tom Riel) says
that area looks like Cold War Russia,” she said with a laugh,
referring to the gray stone that lines the banks of the
highway.

The project will include signs and landscaping, as well as
improvements to the island at the intersection of Elm and Davis
streets. In the future, streetscape work will continue down Davis
Street to Main Street.

“We’ll be negotiating for additional work as money becomes
available,” Andrews said. “This was one of the ideas in the Master
Plan.”

She added that the engineer for the project is the same one who
did the streetscape work on Boylston Street.

In other business, council opened bids for the roof replacement
project at the city Department of Public Works building on Holley
Avenue. The bids ranged from a low of $128,945 from Bradford Window
Co. of Derrick City to a high of $258,231 from Peterson Roofing Co.
of Olean, N.Y. The bids were given to the city’s engineers for
consideration and a decision will be announced at the next council
meeting, which will be held at 7 p.m. June 8.

Council also issued certificates of appropriateness to Lori
Neilly, owner of 53 Main St., and Dianne Thompson, pending owner of
8 E. Washington St., for improvements at their buildings. Neilly
will be painting the trim on the front of the building at 53 Main
St., which formerly housed a law office. Thompson will be
installing new windows and siding, reconstructing the entryway of
the building and renovating the interior of the building to include
living space on the first floor. The building, which had housed
Nusbaum’s grocery store for many years, will be painted to match
The Corner Bar, also owned by Thompson.

Both projects have been approved by the Historical Architectural
Review Board.