Trash collection, landlord regulations to be discussed by Summit Hill council

A special meeting of Summit Hill Borough Council will be held at 6 p.m. today.

At the meeting, the council will open bids for trash collecting.

In addition, borough ordinances are expected to be discussed, especially the trash collecting ordinance and reinstating a proposed landlord/tenant ordinance.

The meeting will be held in the borough hall.

At a meeting earlier this month of the council, borough council candidate Bill Chapman - who is unopposed - complained about garbage collection rules in the borough and urged the council to "set up a system that everyone's treated equally."

He said he has to pay a fee as a resident, plus he pays for a private contractor to haul away the trash generated at his business, the Parkview Inn.

He said there are people with vacant houses who must pay for trash collection for those dwellings.

Chapman also suggested looking into charging a "per bag" fee to residents, although council president Joe Weber remarked of this proposal, "I'm a little leery of that."

Attorney Joe Matika said the borough's ordinance currently calls for residents of vacant homes to be charged if the building is capable of being occupied. It was explained by council that this is because some property owners don't inform the borough when a vacant home becomes occupied.

This evolved into a suggestion that a landlord/tenant ordinance be reinstated. Such an ordinance mandates that landlords report when tenants move to or from their dwellings.

Harry Miller, a councilman, said he opposes an ordinance "that we can't police."

This brought a rebuttal from Kokinda, who remarked, "We can't tell someone they're breaking the law if there's no law."