COAL TOWNSHIP — Health concerns about two properties — a lot on Center Street and a home on West Walnut Street — dominated the final minutes of Thursday night’s Coal Township commissioners’ meeting.

Two residents, Heather Nye, of Center Street, and Louise Fontaine, of 13th Street, said the B&L Dodge Chrysler lot is a potential health hazard. “The lot is being used as a junkyard,” Nye said, showing the commissioners photos taken on Thursday.

“There are barrels on the lot, and we don’t know what’s in them,” she said. “I’m concerned about standing water ... and the possibility of West Nile virus. There are also bees. And the roofs are leaking.”

Fontaine, a former Coal Township commissioner, also was at the meeting to talk about the B&L lot. “This lot is turning our neighborhood into a slum,” she said.

Commissioner George Zalar, looking at the photos, shook his head and said, “We’ll do what we can.”

Township solicitor Vincent Rovito Jr. added: “How about I call the owner’s attorney and say ‘we need this cleaned up?’ Let’s call this a ‘littered area’ rather than a junkyard. But, I’ll tell his lawyer, would you want to live with this?

“I can’t give you a timeline on when this all will be done,” he continued. “I won’t make a promise to you I can’t keep, in terms of a timeline. But I do make a promise that it will be cleaned up.”

Norman Hechtkoff, of West Walnut Street, then told the commissioners about a neighboring property, which is in such disrepair that it has caused a rodent problem.

“This is a bad situation. There are children on this block. We don’t want to be called the rat capital of Pennsylvania,” he said.

“I’ve lived here for 10 years, and this situation is very upsetting,” Hechtkoff told the board. He said garbage is strewn on the back lawn.

Commissioner Albert Santor said: “When this situation first came to my attention, I went over to the property and there must have been 75 bags of garbage on the property. Now the bags are gone from the yard.”

Hechtkoff said he believed the bags were hidden in a van or in a barn-like structure on the property.

“I’m concerned that there are rats in the area attracted by the garbage. Can’t you do anything to help me?” he asked.

Rovito reassured Hechtkoff that he would meet with the township’s code enforcement officer on the issue.

In other business, Santor noted that the township has received approval from the state Department of Economic and Community Development to buy a used fire engine for the Fairview Fire Company using Community Development Block Grant funds.