Anne's Arts & Activities Blog

Several Pearl Street residents took a neighborhood problem to Bradford City Council Tuesday night. Kevin Caldwell told council he and many of his neighbors are fed up with the 17 people living in a single-family house at 41 Pearl. He said the neighbors are concerned about cleanliness, safety and noise. Among the problems, he said, are that the people sleep all day and stay up all night making noise. “When you’re going to work (in the morning), they’re still on the porch partying,” Caldwell said. “I wouldn’t want to live next to it,” said code enforcement officer Mike Cleveland. But he added that there are never any major code violations when he visits the house and the violations he has found, they managed to fix. “I feel for ya,” Cleveland said. Police Chief Chris Lucco added he is “more familiar with the situation than I’d like to be,” adding that he did an emergency welfare check and found that every person had a bed and “the house was cleaner than many, many, many houses I’...

By ANNE HOLLIDAY WESB/WBRR News Director Sometimes it’s hard to see the impact grant money has on the City of Bradford, but Sara Andrews is trying to open people’s eyes to that impact. During a hearing prior to Tuesday’s Bradford City Council meeting the executive director of the Office of Economic and Community Development said the city has received more than $5.3 million in federal HOME Program grants since 1992. The projects the money helped fund has realized $5.6 million in new assessed property values for the city. Specifically, $633,000 in HOME investment leveraged the construction of 30 new homes in Colonial Heights, which added more than $2.1 million in new assessed property. On Onofrio Street, $500,000 leveraged the construction of 13 new homes. Add that to the complete renovation of 15 homes and that’s $3.5 million in new property values. “What an impact that had in that area,” she said. Over the last 19 years the city has rehabilitated 134 homes. “If we hadn’t rehabilitated ...

Although a couple members of the Board of Health would prefer that the city health license of Marsh’s Bar be suspended immediately, the board voted to give the owner 14 days to remedy the 32 violations found in inspections done last week. “This property is a disgrace,” said board member Jim Evans. “It’s one of Bradford’s worst.” Referring to pictures that were taken by inspectors Mike Cleveland and Mark Grassi, Evans said, “What’s going on inside mirrors what’s on the outside.” He asked why the license couldn’t be revoked immediately because the owner has had every opportunity to bring it up to code in the past. Letters were sent to Ken Marsh in April and also in August of last year in reference to code violations. The city’s special counsel Greg Henry said he “would much rather take action immediately than have any sort of delay. There’s no question about that. On the other hand we need to do this in a way that will survive any legal attack upon us.” “This deals with this individual’s...

By ANNE HOLLIDAY WESB/WBRR News Director Snow plowing, snow shoveling, potholes and the cost of salt were addressed during Tuesday's Bradford City Council meeting. "There are many sidewalks in the city which have not been passable since the first snowfall in December," said councilman Fred Proper, who oversees the public works department. He noted that the city does have an ordinance regarding snow shoveling that says anytime there's a snowfall of 2 or more inches, sidewalks need to be cleaned within 24 hours. Proper said if someone has packed snow and ice on his property, but has attempted to clean it, he doesn't have a problem with that. "The problem is the sidewalks that truly have had no care. There are many properties in the city that no one has taken responsibility for. That's a major problem,” he said. “Those sidewalks are probably not going to get shoveled or cleaned up unless the neighbors choose to do it.” Proper stressed that cleaning the sidew...