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Wilkes-Barre Awards Vacant Property Bid To Community Champions

WILKES-BARRE — A home on the 100 block of West Ross Street in Wilkes-Barre has sat vacant for years. It has its windows boarded up, siding falling down, a...

WILKES-BARRE -- A home on the 100 block of West Ross Street in Wilkes-Barre has sat vacant for years. It has its windows boarded up, siding falling down, and its only inhabitant is vegetation that grows out of it.

“I just wonder what they could do with that, what they could with it to make it nicer,” said Levi Veppert of Wilkes-Barre.

“Our town is not like it's supposed to be or it used to be. It's an eyesore,” added William Hardy of Wilkes-Barre.

About five years ago, Wilkes-Barre City Council passed an ordinance to clean up vacant properties in the city by having owners register their properties and pay an annual registration fee of $200 per vacant property. But the city hasn't collected any payments and never created a list of vacant properties because the city never enforced the ordinance.

“We physically do not have adequate staffing to monitor all of it,” said Wilkes-Barre Mayor Tom Leighton.

To help deal with the issue of vacant properties, the city awarded a contract to a third party to help enforce the ordinance. The party that won a bid for the project is Community Champions. It'll receive 60 percent of revenue generated from that ordinance, while the city will get the rest.

“It's a win-win for the people, so they know we're watching these vacant properties,” said Mayor Leighton.

The mayor added the city and Community Champions are still working out a contract, but it will begin enforcing the ordinance as soon as it comes to terms with how to deal with the city's vacant properties.

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