SUNBURY -- While they look for ways to improve Sunbury's rental situation, city officials are focusing their attention on cleaning up the vacant, rundown properties around town.

On Monday, the City Council added 160 Linden St. to its growing list of condemned properties.

Code enforcement officer Mike Rhoads said the city has had issues with the property since January 2005, when the first complaint was lodged.

He said it was previously declared unfit for human habitation, and the code office has tried, with some success, to work with the property owners.

"They have worked to clean it up some," he said. "But it's not enough. ... It's turned into an excuse game, rather than a fix game."

Rhoads passed out pictures of the property to council members. Councilman John Shipman commented on one picture, which he said showed trash piled 6-feet high.

Last year, the city condemned several other properties. In many cases, the city is still working to gain ownership of the buildings and either tear them down or clean them up.

The city employs a part-time worker whose job it is to cut the grass at the condemned properties. City solicitor Michael Apfelbaum informed council members Monday the city could be held liable if the worker injures himself on the job.

"It's very real. We get by, and it seems like no big deal," he said. "It is a big deal."

He suggested the city begin citing the owners of these properties, which in many cases include banks or mortgage companies.

Apfelbaum said he would work with the code office to track down the firms who own some of the buildings.

Shipman also said the council is looking into adopting an ordinance to prevent the number of vacant properties in the city from rising.

"When a building is run down to the point where it costs more to fix it up than it's worth, the owners just walk away," he said, referencing policies in larger cities like Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., as examples of what Sunbury might be able to do.

He said the city would take its time to craft such an ordinance to avoid jeopardizing benevolent property owners.

In other business, the council approved an agreement with city engineer John Bakowicz allowing him to begin work on plans to tear down the steel structure at Stroh Alley.