Baldwin Borough to approve weapons, snow ordinances

Baldwin Borough leaders are making the rules clear: They don’t want you firing weapons in the municipality and they don’t want you shoveling snow onto the street.

With the hiring of new borough manager Bob Firek and police chief Tony Cortazzo in 2019, the two have been giving Baldwin’s code a thorough review as any issue arises in the community to ensure the laws meet the municipality’s current standards, they said.

In November, council members approved the advertisement of two ordinance amendments: one that would prohibit the discharge of firearms and other weapons in the borough. The other prohibits the shoveling or pushing of snow onto the street. Council is set to approve the ordinances on Dec. 17.

“Everybody just assumed that’s the law,” Cortazzo said. But as leaders looked, there was no ordinance that clearly stated the borough’s intentions. “There is no ordinance that you can’t go out in your backyard and shoot your bow.”

The problem is that Baldwin is primarily a residential community, where homes are close to each other. Leaders want to ensure everyone remains safe and that there is no misfiring.

The discharge of firearms and bows and arrows is not a widespread problem in Baldwin, Cortazzo said. But the borough has, in the past, received complaints about residents target practicing, firing airsoft guns into bales of hay in their backyards.

“The intent of the ordinance is to prohibit all of that — any discharge of weapons,” he said. “We don’t want that behavior in our community.”

While the amended ordinance prohibits the discharge of firearms and bows and arrows near residential homes or occupied office buildings, it does allow for lawful hunting and a person discharging a weapon in defense of themself or their property.

A person can be fined up to $500 for violating the ordinance if convicted by the magisterial district judge.

If a resident pushes snow onto the street just after cleaning crews have passed, it could potentially be there for hours and freeze and create a traffic hazard, Firek said. It takes three hours to do a complete run through the borough for public works in the winter.

A person can be fined up to $300 per occurrence if found in violation of the ordinance.

Both the manager and chief said they have continuously been reviewing the borough’s code throughout the last year.

“People call and say, ‘This guy’s doing this. Someone’s doing that. Is this legal?’ We have a new code enforcement officer, too. So we look through the ordinance and it doesn’t say you can do it, or you can’t,” he said.

“It’s more or less bringing the ordinance to the current style of living,” Firek said.

Cortazzo has even asked officers to point out any issues they see where the borough’s ordinances do not back the current standards.

By having the ordinances in place, it provides police with a tool for enforcement, he said.

“Our job every day is to protect our residents and the visitors of Baldwin and these two simple ordinances get us closer to that goal,” Cortazzo said.