New borough regulations regarding landlords, sidewalks and blight are being considered by Summit Hill Borough Council.

The three topics were discussed at the regularly monthly meeting of the council on Monday.

The council is looking for public input, with residents urged to attend a workshop meeting at 7 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 26 in the borough hall.

Regarding blight, council President David Wargo said one provision of the quality-of-life ordinance will be that citations will be issued to property owners, followed by abatement by the borough when the infractions are ignored. The borough will use a contractor to do exterior clean-up and/or do outdoor rodent extermination.

The council agreed to seek proposals from contractors for clearing violating properties of debris and for exterminating services.

Proposals for both types of services will be accepted by the council until 4 p.m. on Tuesday, March 12 at the borough hall. They will be discussed at a meeting of the council at 7 p.m. that evening.

The firms submitting proposals must be insured and bonded. They would be hired on an as-needed basis. If such a firm would be needed for eliminating a problem, the property owner would be billed both for the service and administrative costs.

Wargo said such clean-up crews and exterminators are not permitted to go inside any buildings on the violating properties.

Suggested updates to an ordinance regarding rental properties were outlined by council member Marlene Basiago.

She said a list was compiled of all properties in the borough. “We have about 330 rental properties in Summit Hill,” she said.

The anticipated regulations would include updating the list of all property owners, including names of individuals involved in LLCs. A spreadsheet on all the properties will be created.

For any rental property, if there are outstanding borough obligations including unpaid taxes or utilities, the landlord would be denied rental approval.

“Hopefully, within a few months, we will have it instituted,” she said.

The sidewalk ordinance is a work in progress, said council member Karen Ruzicka. She said after the meeting that it probably wouldn’t pertain to residents of the White Bear section of the community because of the outlay of the area.

“At the committee meeting, if any citizens have questions, come and talk about it,” she said.