Lumberyard proposed as new Lansford Garage site
In order to use the bathroom, workers have to duck beneath rusting, jagged metal while crossing the basement of the building. CHRIS REBER/TIMES NEWS
A Lansford Borough Councilman says the solution to the borough’s garage woes may be purchasing a lumberyard in the borough.
Councilman Joe Butrie proposed at a council meeting Wednesday night that council should vote to purchase Panther Creek Lumber and use the property to build a future garage.
Meanwhile, the borough has been given 30 days to vacate its current garage, which the Department of Labor and Industry has deemed unsafe for workers.
In a letter dated May 23, the director of the Bureau of Occupational & Industrial Safety said his office would take legal action against the borough if it fails to vacate the garage within 30 days.
Councilman Bob Silver said borough workers are in the process of moving into a temporary home that it is renting on West Bertsch Street, but the priority is replacing storm sewer inlet boxes in preparation for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s complete repaving of Route 209 in the borough later this year.
On Wednesday, Butrie made a motion to buy the lumberyard for $360,000, arguing council has to take action now. None of the other five council members present at the meeting seconded the motion. Councilman Matt Walsh, who was recently charged by the state attorney general’s office for allegedly dealing drugs, was not in attendance.
“If we keep dragging our feet, the same thing will happen that happened with the garage. It will come back to bite us,” he said.
The borough has a grant worth $160,000 from gambling revenue to build a new garage.
Previous efforts at building a garage focused on property the borough owns on Spring Street. Council has been unsuccessful in finding a contractor to build a garage on Spring Street. The cost to level out the Spring Street property and build a garage have been estimated to be over $450,000.
Resident Rose Mary Cannon asked why the borough can’t just build a simple pole building on the Spring Street property. Butrie says the purchase price for the lumber yard would be less than the cost to level out the Spring Street property.
Butrie said he was aware that buying Panther Creek Lumber would result in a loss of tax revenue to the borough. However, he said, the current owner is planning to retire, so that tax revenue will probably go away in the coming years
“I know it’s a loss of taxes, but he is going to be retiring anyway,” Butrie said.
