Mingo Junction council to decide on property vacation
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MINGO JUNCTION -- Members of the Mingo Junction Village Council said Tuesday that they would have an answer by council's next meeting in regard to the possible vacation of the unused and unmaintained Elizabeth Street.
It was the second appearance before the council of attorney John Mascio, who presented to council members a petition by adjoining property owners to vacate Elizabeth Street and an alley that runs behind it. The petition seeks to have the unutilized property transferred by ordinance to the property owners, with owners on each side of the street receiving half.
Discussions in this meeting revolved around a 12-inch waterline that runs under the street. The council agreed to have George Stoddart, chief operator of the Mingo Junction Water Department, consult with the Environmental Protection Agency about how much footage is needed on each side of the waterline for potential future repairs.
Councilman Mark Baker told Mascio the council would schedule a time to look at the property in question and have a final answer for him by the next meeting.
"The area we're talking about right now isn't going to make a bit of difference in any investment of any kind whatsoever," Mascio said at the beginning of his presentation. "All it really does is it relieves the village of any obligation to do any maintenance work at all."
Although Mascio insisted that the village's easements would remain untouched by the property transfer, council members remained skeptical.
Councilman Adam Peeler said that a certain amount of space is needed around the waterline to be kept free from development in case repairs need to be made. Councilman Jack Brettell added that a building over top of the waterline would be heavily damaged in the instance of a waterline break.
Furthermore, Peeler asked what the property owners plan to do with the property, referencing past legal proceedings in which a portion of Elizabeth Street had already been vacated and transferred to a private individual, who had seemingly not used the property for anything since its acquisition.
Mascio insisted that the village has an obligation to maintain the overgrown and unused street -- defined by law as a street that has not been used for 21 or more years -- and claimed that it poses a security issue if an individual decides to drive on the public street. If instead the street were turned over to the property owners, Mascio said, they could take the necessary steps to block it off to traffic.
Peeler retorted, saying the village could maintain the street by simply placing slag and cutting any sprouting trees. To that, Mascio asked, "How much money do you want to spend to open and maintain an unused street that has no use to the village?"
Peeler said, "It has no use for the people requesting it."
Peeler said the outcome of discussions may have been different if the property owners approached the council directly and asked for maintenance of the street so they could have access to the rear of their properties. Mascio challenged Peeler and asked, if the owners rescinded the petition, whether the village would maintain the road.
Mascio provided the council with an updated map of the property in question with corrected directional markers.
In other business, Brettell said the council's water and sewer board decided during its meeting on Oct. 13 to hold water bill late fees for five or six days longer than usual after the bills arrive, with October bills set to arrive Wednesday. That action followed continuing issues the village has been facing with its Muni-Link billing system -- issues that have put the system's future in question for the village.
Separately, village Administrator Bob Smith said the asbestos report on 645 Commercial St., known as the Argo building, returned without finding any asbestos inside, though Smith said workers testing for the material could only travel so far into the building for fear of its poor condition.
The village is in the process of having the building razed, and Smith said the asbestos testing organization recommended razing the building with the protocol for asbestos, a more costly protocol due to special bagging and landfill procedures. Smith said he will try to make sure that, when the razing job goes up for bid, the selected organization proceeds, assuming there is no asbestos -- as was indicated by the report -- and reassesses if it discovers any.
Smith said the building will likely be razed sometime in 2024.