Reading officials shut down and placarded four illegal or unpermitted after-hours clubs during a six-week enforcement operation this spring, the city announced.<\/p>\n
The crackdown followed changes to the city\u2019s disruptive conduct ordinance that strengthened enforcement provisions and created additional consequences for property owners when repeated incidents occur, officials said.<\/p>\n
In Reading\u2019s announcement of the initiative, police Chief Javier Ruiz said the operation required coordination among several city departments and state officials.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur officers conducted 135 directed patrols during this operation, and we took action at locations where violations were identified,\u201d Ruiz said. \u201cWe will continue to work with our city partners to address illegal after-hours activity and pursue enforcement when warranted.\u201d<\/p>\n
The operation was conducted during May and June by Reading police working with the city Fire Marshal\u2019s Office and Property and Codes Enforcement and with assistance from Pennsylvania Liquor Control Enforcement.<\/p>\n
Under the revised ordinance, after two documented disruptive conduct incidents involving an occupant within a 12-month period, a property owner must begin eviction proceedings against the occupant or file an appeal. Failure to take the required action can begin a process that could lead to suspension of the property\u2019s housing permit.<\/p>\n
The four locations shut down and placarded also received public nuisance warning notices. The city Fire Marshal\u2019s Office posted all four buildings as unsafe structures because of illegal changes in use and documented 18 additional fire prevention code violations.<\/p>\n
Following the enforcement action, re-inspections found that the illegal uses had ended. Property owners and occupants were given information about legal avenues available to pursue changes in use.<\/p>\n
Fire Marshal Jeremy Searfoss said his office emphasizes educating property owners and occupants before resorting to enforcement.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur office focuses on education first, followed by enforcement when necessary,\u201d Searfoss said. \u201cEducation is key to decreasing injuries during emergencies and helping property owners and occupants understand how to safely use buildings within the built environment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mayor Eddie Mor\u00e1n said the ordinance changes were intended to give the city stronger tools to deal with recurring problems.<\/p>\n
\u201cPublic safety doesn\u2019t stop at a certain time of day, and it doesn\u2019t stop because a property is being used in a way that wasn\u2019t permitted,\u201d Mor\u00e1n said. \u201cWe made changes to the city\u2019s ordinance because we needed stronger tools to address ongoing problems, and now we\u2019re seeing our departments put those tools to work.\u201d<\/p>\n
The city said targeted enforcement will continue at locations where illegal and unpermitted after-hours activity has been identified.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reading officials shut down and placarded four illegal or unpermitted after-hours clubs during a six-week enforcement operation this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":286471,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,857,182,139,28,736,128,130,129,706],"class_list":["post-286470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-berks-county","tag-essential-reading","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-top-stories-reg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}