Johnstown Officials are looking to more strictly enforce codes in the city, and say the Fire Department is now involved with Code Enforcement.
Johnstown Fire Chief Bob Statler says the Fire Department isn’t walking down streets looking for code violations eight hours a day
And that emergencies take precedent over code enforcement
But, he says his team is looking to canvass the entire city as part of their new task.
Statler says the department has been going street by street looking for garbage, abandoned vehicles, vacant strucural issues, and in the coming months will add high grass to the list.
He says his crew has been doing that for about two weeks and are finding many violations, but Statler does not have an estimate for how long it will take to canvass the whole city.
Johnstown City Manager Art Martynuska says the Fire Department is working with the Johnstown Codes Department and Laurel Municipal Inspection Agency, as the city looks to use all its resources.
He says the role of the Fire Department is just to be eyes and ears on the streets and pointing out potential code violations they see, while the rest is handled by the others.
Martynuska adds that potential violations can be reported to code enforcment, if seen by the public.
“If they see something, say something, and again we’re trying to make the city a better place to live. We’re not trying to be punitive with these things, it’s more with compliance than anything else.”
Martynuska says it can also be an opportunity for fire personnel to get out and interact with the community.
Chief Statler adds that staffing in the department is not in a bad place, but downtime does need to be scheduled differently now