From summer to fall, their complaints punctuated Swissvale council meetings.

"I was chased into the house by a raccoon spitting and hissing at me," said Alma Aland in August. "We're asking for your help here. We pay taxes."

She and a few other Swissvale neighbors over several months have implored the borough to crack down on absentee property owners whose eyesore buildings cause trouble.

Early last summer, borough officials started addressing those complaints.

They hired an office intern to compile a computer listing of all the properties lying within borough limits.

Then in July, in compliance with the state's effort to standardize the Building Officials Code Administrators or BOCA rules, they hired Carey Carroll, a Duquesne Heights resident and certified building inspector.

Finally, last month, under pressure from Councilman James Bonacci, the borough budgeted $62,000 to pay two part-time code enforcement officers -- Fawn Burch and Makeba Branson, both of Swissvale -- to aid Fred Kuhn, senior code officer and recreation department director.

Along with citing landowners who allow garbage and trash to pile up, Burch and Branson are completing the intern's list.

So far, they have catalogued 2,500 properties in the borough, said Burch.

Of that number, more than 60 property owners have been cited for structural problems, said Carroll. Some 150 have been warned of pending action if they don't address violations.

And, with help from the police, more than 20 improperly licensed cars have been impounded as part of the same cleanup effort.

The drive comes none too soon, say residents.

Still, Aland, and two other residents, Fred Cole and Eric Wenzel, both of Buena Vista Street, are dealing with situations that illustrate the borough's challenge.

In Aland's case, four years after the owner at 2129 Milligan died, the home's fireplace mantels and stained glass windows have been ripped out. Once a family's legacy, the house has become a picked-over haven for pigeons and raccoons, says Aland, who has lived next door for 55 years.

Recently, the pigeon population has overflowed onto her roof.

"We have to scrape off the pigeon droppings every day," she told council in August. "We can't even use our back yard because of all the ... droppings. Can you help us?"

Eric Wenzel said the derelict house next to his is endangering his family and has curtailed their mobility.

"We were thinking about selling our house," said Wenzel at a November meeting. "But we cannot put our house up for sale because of the house next to us. Who's going to buy it?"

Wenzel and his family live next to 2364 Buena Vista St. The front porch of the 93-year-old house is cluttered with dirty plastic buckets, furniture, mattresses, tires, old shelving and wood planks.

It once belonged to Steven S. Bales, 38, who died there two days before Christmas 2003. Bales, who lived alone, had tried to shore up a bulge in the wall with plywood. It didn't work.

Now there is a gaping hole 5 or 6 feet in diameter. Feral cats slink in and out.

Carroll says the Bales family was cited for maintaining an unsafe structure shortly after the Nov. 3 meeting when Wenzel complained. But they have 30 days to repair or demolish the house. So far they have denied any responsibility, he said.

The court will have to decide what happens next, he said.

Fred Cole, who lives in the 2300 block of Buena Vista, said one night he was frying fish for dinner and he heard clawing at his screen door.

Raccoons that had set up housekeeping next door among the piled up mattresses, couch, old door and wooden box sniffed the aroma and came to join Cole for dinner.

Fred Kuhn, senior code enforcement officer, said the borough set traps and caught a couple of cats and an opossum, but so far, no raccoons.

Cole's wife, Toni, said she was grateful to the borough for the help, but the trash was still there on Monday.

Building owner Odell Jones, whose last known address was in Apollo, eluded officials for several weeks but they eventually found him living in Homewood.

He was due in court yesterday afternoon.

Since July, up to four owners have appeared in District Justice Ross Cioppa's courtroom to answer citations, said Carroll.

On Monday, Cioppa dismissed a citation against Dickson Street six-plex owner James Buccilli, of Murrysville, said Carroll. However, the court ordered him to clean up the backyard, which was overflowing with garbage bags, old wicker furniture, scrap wood and more. The mess attracted rats, Carroll said.

Fortunately, the work started the same afternoon that Cioppa ruled.

Carroll said the Buccilli case shows the tortuous road he sometimes faces when tracking down and bringing owners to account.

According to Carroll, Buccilli bought the property through a land grant agreement. That means that, although Buccilli was buying the building and had installed two tenants, when he later filed for bankruptcy, the original owner, Bruce J. Schoenfelder, also of Murrysville, again became responsible for the building.

Resolving the matter will require another court hearing, Carroll said.