County, Brownsville need to take care of blight
Tracy Zivkovich has lived on Church Street in Brownsville all her life and now she is trying to eliminate the blight that is right across from her home. I went to the Brownsville Council for over 20 years to ask if anything could be done about the blighted properties on Church Street and it was like talking to the wall. Zivkovich was the chairman for a few years and her answer to me was your three minutes are up.
Council hired a new solicitor Attorney Krisha Dimascio a couple of years ago and she told me Mr. Liggett still owned the blighted properties and there wasn’t anything the city could do about them and the county commissioners are the trustee of the properties. So I gave up on the Brownsville council.
All of Liggetts properties finally went on a tax sale about six years ago and nobody bid on any because the buyer had to not only buy the properties but assume the leans and fines. The solicitor for the county was supposed to put the properties on the Free & Clear sale one year later but he couldn’t do it because it was too much work. He is no longer the county solicitor. When the properties finally got on the Free & Clear聽 sale the county tax collector added how much money it cost them which amounted to over $2000 to $3000 for each property. Apparently this was ordered by the commissioners. So instead of selling the properties for the appraised value, they added on this amount and nobody bought the properties. No taxes have been collected for these properties since 2005.
The Redevelopment Authority of Fayette County got 22 of Liggetts properties most of them in downtown Brownsville. They gave Liggett $300,000 and absolved him of over $500,000 of fines and taxes. The Authority spent a bunch of money on a better look for Brownsville’s downtown. But it still looks like hell and the Authority doesn’t have to pay any taxes on the properties. This was all approved by the Brownsville council over the years. The one nice thing that happened was a stage, which cost over $500,000, was built.
I moved back to Brownsville in 1992. I have three properties on Church Street. It was one of the nicest streets in Brownsville when I was growing up as a kid. I have great memories of my life in Brownsville, but now that I am going on 80 years old, it is only getting more sad. The town is broke and there is nothing I can do about it. The streets and the drains聽 have not been cleaned for over four years. But Uniontown seems to being doing great.
I hope Zivkovivk and Brownsville Council will finally get the job done.
Pat Purcell
Brownsville