Donora in dispute over Thompson Ave. property

A long-abandoned home will likely be torn down.

Donora will likely have to demolish a borough-owned house on Thompson Avenue regardless of ongoing disagreements over how the property was purchased.

Last year, Thompson Avenue resident Amber Trilli asked council about a neighboring property at 875 Thompson Ave. Trilli said the house has been abandoned for at least 17 years and has routinely caused problems for her and other neighbors.

There is an ongoing dispute between Trilli and borough council concerning the property.

Trilli said she came to a council meeting in July 2023 and asked about the dilapidated house. Trilli alleges that council agreed to purchase 875 Thompson Ave. from the county repository for $300, demolish the house and then sell the property for $300 to Trilli, who said she’d like to use it as a driveway.

Several borough officials, including council President Cindy Brice, Solicitor Steve Toprani and borough administrator Mike Thornton, remember the conversation very differently. Brice, Toprani and Thornton have consistently said over the past few months that Trilli asked council to buy the property from the repository so she could buy it from them for the same low cost the borough gets from the repository. According to the officials, Trilli said she would demolish the house to install a driveway.

The disagreement over who agreed to demolish the structure has continued for months.

In June, Trilli said she called Thornton to discuss the status of the property and he hung up on her.

Thornton said he told Trilli that he spoke to Brice and his recollection of the conversation last summer is the same as Brice’s — that Trilli indicated she would demolish the structure if the borough purchased it.

“(Trilli) said she was going to tear this building down if we bought it and put it in our name first and then sold it to her for the same price we got it for out of the repository,” Thornton said in June. “She was going to take the building down because she wanted a driveway there and she was going to maintain it. That’s when I told her I’d put my hand on a stack of Bibles to swear that’s what she said.”

Trilli asked for meeting minutes to verify what she said at the meeting and argued that she would have just purchased the property herself if that’s what she wanted to do. But Toprani said she couldn’t have purchased the property out of the repository because individuals don’t have standing to buy those properties.

“The borough gets priority purchasing through the repository,” Toprani said.

Trilli asked Toprani what he remembered about the conversation, and Toprani said his memory is the same as Thornton and Brice.

Trilli said during the meeting last year, Toprani indicated the borough would purchase the property and maybe if the street department crew had time, it would begin to tear the house down over the winter.

Toprani said he remembers a conversation about whether the demolition was something the road crew could do, but it was more of a possible suggestion and not a plan.

Brice said it would have been ridiculous for the borough to agree to buy the property, incur the expense of demolition and then sell it to Trilli for $300 — with the borough eating the cost of the demo.

Councilman Casey Perrotta said he looked for the July 2023 meeting minutes and while it mentions Trilli and the discussion, it doesn’t include any details. Perrotta said he agrees it would be wrong for the borough to sell the property for $300 because the demolition will likely cost $10,000.

Perrotta said he doesn’t expect Trilli to pay for the $10,000 expense entirely, but instead he’d like council to come up with a dollar amount that could be a compromise for her to buy the property.

Trilli said it doesn’t make any sense that she would have agreed to buy the property if the dilapidated house is still there. Brice said it doesn’t make any sense that the borough would have agreed to pay thousands for demolition on a property it would only sell for a few hundred dollars.

At this month’s meeting, Trilli read from a news article printed last July that detailed the conversation she had with council and Toprani at that time.

In that article, Toprani said the Thompson Avenue property might be something the borough would want to buy to clear the way for a potential future demolition. He said if the property had unpaid taxes, which it did, it could be purchased through the repository as a way of keeping an out-of-state investor or landlord from purchasing it.

Toprani explained, in the article that bad property owners are protected and buying the property at tax sale is the legal way to get title to a site that needs to be demolished before out-of-state owners can ignore Donora’s attempts to get it cleaned up.

In the article, Toprani told Trilli that if she was interested in purchasing the lot, putting it back on the tax rolls and to “give you extra space” that might be something the borough could do.

“I’ve been consistent on this topic forever, ever since I’ve been solicitor in Donora and I’ve dealt with this issue in so many Mon Valley communities,” Toprani said.

The solicitor said last summer he was proposing that if the property was in tax delinquency and going up for sale the borough should attempt to get it before an absentee buyer could.

“If we could gain control of the property for future demolition that’s something we should always try to do,” Toprani said regarding blighted properties in general.

He pointed to his last comments in the article, in which he said there are limitations in the number of demolitions the borough can perform but if Donora could sell that property to an abutting property owner to be able to do that demolition, the borough would try to help with that purchase.

Trilli said she felt like she was discredited at the June meeting because Toprani and Brice didn’t remember last year’s meeting the way she did and felt the article proved the conversation happened the way she remembered.

Perrotta said he remembers sitting in the back of the meeting last year and that Trilli’s memory is correct.

Trilli asked Brice why she would agree to demolish a house on borough-owned property and Brice asked why the borough would agree to buy a property and demolish it for Trilli.

Trilli argued that she was going to buy it after the borough tore it down, but Brice said that’s not how the discussion went.

Councilwoman DeAnne Pavelko said the borough is now the owner of the property and Donora has to maintain it regardless of who said what. She asked street department foreman Dean Fronzaglio to make sure the borough starts maintaining the property.

Perrotta said there is demolition money in the budget and the plan was to go after five residential properties and one commercial lot — 875 Thompson Ave. is on that list. Perrotta said the borough will have to determine which of those properties is either in the worst shape or the easiest building to demo and pick one site to be demolished first.

The first to be targeted will likely be on Thompson Avenue, but in the 600 block because it’s the easiest for the street department to do. Perrotta said council will have to determine which property will be demolished second.

Trilli said she doesn’t know what she’s going to do now. She’s not sure she wants to purchase the property after all and said she’s been giving some thought to moving.

“The problem was that I thought we were helping you and it ended up harming us, so that will never happen again,” Brice said. “That’s for sure.”

Brice said moving forward the borough will likely have to demolish the building and the cost of that will be passed on to whoever buys the property once that’s done.

“That’s just the way we’re going to do it with every property we tear down,” Brice said. “Whatever the amount was to tear it down, that’s what’s going to come from someone acquiring it. We’re not going to spend $10,000, $12,000 or $15,000 and then sell it to somebody for $300.”