Pottsville’s Code Enforcement Officer has resigned. At a special council meeting on Thursday morning, the board unanimously voted to appoint a third-party company it hired earlier this year to serve as the primary code enforcer for the City in the interim.
According to City Administrator Robert Straebel, Justin Trefsger tendered his resignation on Monday. He’ll stay on with Pottsville until July 31.
However, City Hall is immediately turning to Advance Code Consultants, of Sugarloaf, as its interim building code official, zoning officer, and property maintenance code officer. Pottsville actually hired Advance Code Consultants as its back-up code enforcement team in April.
Straebel says the City’s focus in the code enforcement office going forward will be on customer service.
“We have a new company on board that is committed to returning phone calls,” he said. “As our City Administrator, I’ll make sure that customer service is our number one priority and that phone calls get returned and permits get expedited as quickly as possible.”
The City Administrator said Pottsville, through Advance Code Consultants, will be following up on all complaints, concerns, and questions going forward.
WIth the new code enforcement team in place, at least in the interim, Mayor Tom Smith said Pottsville will be getting more aggressive with owners of blighted properties. He said that so far this year, “very few” owners have been cited for unkempt properties but that’s about to change.
“We’ve heard the public’s comments. We are working toward a vastly better experience,” Smith said.
Solicitor Gretchen Sterns said owners of blighted properties spotted by code enforcement, if the problem is not an “immediate safety issue”, can expect to first receive a Notice of Violation, giving them a chance to address the issues, and then get cited through District Court. Some issues, she said, may immediately go to a citation in District Court.
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