The following post is made so that future generations can look back in our history and determine our State of Affairs during this timeframe.
37 Thorn Street, Austin, Pennsylvania, had been the home and barber shop of Gus Hennigus (not sure of the spelling of last name) during the time I as growing up in the 60s.
The Borough of Austin took control of this property at no cost on
May 19, 2004, for the purpose of tearing down the structure thereon and creating a borough office in it's place.
The Borough of Austin is unable to provide the total or exact cost of tearing down and disposing of the structure as those records were cleaned out this past winter, but I have heard the figure
$10,000.00 used multiple times by knowledgeable individual(s) associated with the borough at the time, including the Borough Secretary/Treasurer/Supervisor.
The Borough Council was unable to follow through on their plan of making 77 Thorn Street the site of a new borough office and the property remained vacant.
Not long after assuming the position of Borough Councilman in
2012, I made a motion that we sell the property. The motion was defeated.
The property remained vacant.
In
October 2014, I made a motion that we donate the property to the Habitat For Humanity organization for the purpose of their building a residential house on the property, with the stipulation that the house be built within five (5) years, or, the property would revert back to the Borough.
The motion passed.
Note 1: Current council member Jesse Valenti has been on the council since
2006 and council member Setzer has been a member of council since
2004.
Note 2: Knowledgeable comments regarding this piece of property are welcomed using the comment's section. Remember. You must sign your name to the comment, taking ownership of that comment.