It ain’t over ‘til it’s over — and that day has yet to come for residents of Chelsea Lane in the City of Bradford.
Patricia Hile and a few neighbors attended Bradford City Council’s meeting Tuesday to ask if an agreement has been reached as of yet with developer Nick Cummins to turn over Chelsea Lane to the city — or to pave the street.
“I did speak to Mr. Cummins today. He does have a contract to pave your street with Hawbaker,” Mayor Tom Riel said.
Hile said the residents are tired of waiting. “I don’t have faith in Cummins Construction. I’ve lost all faith in the procedure completely.”
“That is a private road,” Councilman Brad Mangel said. “We’re under no obligation to take care of it.”
However, since the city sends it refuse packers there to collect garbage, and its emergency vehicles there, they are trying to get the street patched or paved as soon as possible, Mangel said.
“In recent months, the city has been much more aggressive about it, even though it’s not our job to force a private contractor to do this,” said Riel. “We are trying to do this even though we don’t see your tax money because there is a (tax abatement) plan.”
Riel said the abatement plan was put into place before he was mayor, when the subdivision was in development.
“The original agreement was a bad situation,” Hile said. “The residents are the ones getting the short end of the stick.”
Riel added, “We’ve never been this close to having an actual agreement with them. We have some concerns.”
Hile asked if the residents go to the Bradford Redevelopment Authority to ask them to withhold tax funds from Cummins, would the city back them.
“That’s what we’ve been doing,” Riel said. “We are going out of our way to help you.”
An agreement with Cummins was on the agenda for the meeting. However, when the motion was read, it was immediately tabled until the next council meeting.
No explanation was offered during the meeting. After the meeting, Mangel was speaking to Hile regarding the issue.
Also at the meeting, council declined the sale of five properties from the county tax repository, saying the properties are before the Board of Health and are beyond the scope of renovations.
Council approved unanimously a certificate of appropriateness to Jonathan Pingie, owner of Player’s Downtown, to repair damage done to the rear of the building when an adjacent one collapsed.
The next regularly scheduled council meeting is at 7 p.m. Nov. 10.
