West Kittanning Borough Addressing Collapsed Greenhouses

The West Kittanning Borough Council is addressing the removal of two greenhouses belonging to Ford's Flowers that collapsed during this past winter.
by Nathan Lasher
West Kittanning Mayor Bernie Bowser, Jr. commented on the Borough’s need to address two collapsed greenhouses belonging to Ford’s Flowers during a public meeting held last night.
“The Ford’s Flowers greenhouses is an issue that’s going to have to be addressed,” said Bowser. “It’s a dangerous structure. It needs taken out of there. Why it hasn’t been done so far; I thought he was going to take it out fairly quickly, but it hasn’t been touched yet. I’ve had a lot of concerns brought my way on that issue.”
West Kittanning Borough Council President Cliff Neal commented that the structure was not all that needed to be addressed on that property.
“In addition to the greenhouses, the weeds around that complex are bad,” said Neal. “You have the auto dealership there; you have Ford’s Flowers, other homes, and a greenhouse that’s down. If any of that would catch on fire, there would be a brush fire, it’s a safety issue. The high grass, trees, and underbrush need to be addressed also.”
The owners of Ford’s Flowers had not been contacted by last night’s meeting. Mayor Bowser stated that he wanted to make everyone at the meeting aware of the issue first. “It’s going to have to be totally torn out of there in my opinion,” said Bowser. “It’s just a dangerous situation; a child goes over there, gets down over there, and it collapses more. We have a dangerous structure ordinance in effect, which we actually just got adopted about four months ago to put a little more teeth into it which gives us a little easier way to get rid of things.”
The two greenhouses owned by Ford’s Flowers collapsed February 18 of this year after heavy snow began to thaw. At the time of the incident, Ford’s Flowers was closed for the winter season. Therefore, there was no one working inside the buildings when the roof collapsed.
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