Engineer offers dire assessment of Donora building

By KRISTIE LINDEN

For the MVI

The building next to Donora’s parking garage at Sixth Street and McKean Avenue “should have been torn down yesterday,” according to borough engineer Gannett-Fleming.

The dilapidated structure at 618 McKean Ave. started crumbling along the top exterior brickwork closest to the alley that runs between the garage and the borough building.

Borough officials found several fallen bricks in the upper parking lot one morning and sent a drone up to get a view of the roof on 618 McKean Ave. Council President Cindy Brice said last week that a partial roof collapse was found at that time.

Solicitor Steve Toprani advised council to get an engineer’s report regarding the structure’s stability because the owner lives in New Jersey and if Donora has to demo the building in an emergency situation, the borough will need that report in court.

Mayor Donnie Pavelko said this week that he was present for the inspection performed by Gannett-Fleming and the engineer told him he could sum up the building in a few words, “This building should have been torn down yesterday.”

One reason council wanted to get the engineering report done was to see if the borough needs to rope off as much of the parking garage and alley as it has or if a portion of the area could be reopened.

Pavelko said the engineer told him the area that’s blocked off has to remain in place, and a larger area may have to be blocked.

The mayor also heard from someone who shared that a woman and young girl chose to sit down and rest under the building’s canopy despite the yellow caution tape, so he wondered if more tape should be added. Street 

Foreman Dean Fronzaglio said his crew was standing in front of the building discussing it when a woman using a walker chose to walk past them and into the roped off area despite them asking her not to go that way.

Brice said the tape and blocked-off area should be stabilized a bit to make it harder for people to put themselves at risk.

Pavelko said the engineer also told him the borough’s fire Chief Patsy Vince “already knows about the building” and that he couldn’t understand why the borough called the engineer when the fire chief already “had this under control.”

Brice said Toprani explained to council during last week’s work session the documentation is required to get approval for emergency demolition of a building that is not owned by the borough. Because the owner is out of state and hasn’t agreed to demo the building, court permission is necessary for Donora to be able to take it on.

Toprani said this week the borough would not be able to meet its burden of proof that the building is dangerous and needs to be torn down without an engineer’s report.

“No disrespect to the fire chief, but this is addressed on an expert basis,” Toprani said. “An engineer has to submit a professional report under seal; that’s just the legal requirement.”

Additionally, Toprani said, the borough’s insurance carrier will require information from the engineer if the borough ends up having to demolish the structure with in-house employees rather than contracting the work out.

The solicitor also cautioned council not to make too many commitments because the borough doesn’t currently have the money to perform this demolition.

“So while I appreciate the expert’s report saying that we should perform a demolition and that there’s a risk, once we go to court and get a court order, the court is going to expect us to perform a demo,” Toprani said. “They may even limit us on the amount of time we have to perform it. So we may overcommit.”

Toprani said because there isn’t funding in place, it would be good for Fronzaglio and his crew to take a look at what they might be able to do with the building. Toprani said maybe it’s possible to raze a section to make it safe for the block that’s impacted.

Councilman Casey Perrotta asked if there is a legal way to go after the building’s owner in New Jersey, who reportedly purchased the building off of eBay for $6,000, doesn’t have insurance on it and doesn’t have the money to demolish it. Perrotta said the borough can’t demo the building and lien the property because it will end up with a $60,000 lien on a piece of vacant property that Donora will be unlikely to recoup.

“Why can’t we go after this guy in New Jersey? Go after his wages, go after his income tax return, go after his property in New Jersey? We have to be able to do something,” Perrotta asked.

Toprani said that because the man lives in New Jersey, he’s outside of the laws of Pennsylvania.

Council asked about how to prevent such things from happening in the future and Toprani said in a global economy, it’s hard to restrict anyone from purchasing property. Toprani gave an example of a case he worked on in Washington in which the property was owned by someone who purchased it on eBay from Moscow. It took six years to be able to demolish the structure, he said.

Toprani said it’s difficult enough to get people who live in the community to take care of blighted property they own, without having to try to track down owners across the country and around the world.

“A lot of times we have to pursue these without ever knowing that we’re going to recover (the lien) or we have to get grant money or we have to seek outside funding to do it,” Toprani said.