The West Mifflin borough council held a condemnation hearing for the former Century III Mall on Wednesday night.West Mifflin Police Chief Gregory McCulloch said the mall began to decline in 2012 and has been vacant and rapidly deteriorating since 2019.The borough council’s witnesses and representatives of mall owner Moonbeam Capital presented conflicting representations of the conditions inside the mall.Council members made it clear they want to see the Century III Mall torn down, but the first step in determining the fate of the property is to condemn the mall. A vote will be taken at the July council meeting.Council member Dan Davis said the property is assessed at about $2 million, and it would cost $10-15 million to tear down."Today, you cannot ignore the local residents or the local government,” West Mifflin resident Lauren Rowe said.Davis cited a fire in April, three trespassing incidents in May, and a teenager who fell through the roof of the mall earlier this month as just a few of the major concerns regarding safety.He said PennDOT reached out to the borough regarding the congestion surrounding the mall site due to the condition of the road.“That road is in bad condition. They promised us in April they were going to fix the potholes. PennDOT has been talking to us now because of the congestion,” Davis said.McCulloch said the latest break-in was Tuesday night. He said officers haven’t been inside the mall since responding to help the person that fell through the roof, and it’s too dangerous to enter anymore.“There’s nothing in there that’s been touched, cleaned up, fixed. It’s just debris, broken glass. It’s hard to explain how … It’s horrendous,” McCulloch said.A structural engineer called by the borough to testify said the mall is in a dilapidated and distressed condition, with water leaking through the roof and corrosion in structural supports.Mike Wuerthele, a structural engineer for WBCM, spoke on behalf of Moonbeam, saying much of the mall is structurally sound.“It’s my opinion that the level of damage could be remediated,” Wuerthele said.Council asked Wuerthele if he inspected the entire interior of the mall for possible structural issues and failures.“To the best of my ability, in the amount of time that I had, I reviewed as much as I could,” Wuerthele said. He added that his inspection lasted an hour and a half to two hours.Moonbeam Capital chief operating officer Shawl Pryor shared his plan for preventing anyone else from falling through the roof.“What I’m exploring right now is to look at putting a fence around the entire property in an effort to try to prevent individuals from entering the property as a first barrier of defense,” Pryor said.“Unfortunately, it’s sad that their chief operations officer doesn’t know what’s going on in the mall to the extent it is, because it has reached out all over the United States what’s going on with that mall,” West Mifflin resident David Marshall said.Pryor added that Moonbeam is in talks with a potential buyer and the sale of the mall is under contract.“I think that them saying they have a potential buyer is trying to buy them time, is what that is in our opinion,” Davis said.Pryor also said they have added security patrols recently and they are wearing PPE for their safety.McCulloch said he was unaware of that until Wednesday night.Council members said the vote on condemnation will likely happen at the borough’s July meeting.