City issues 240 code violations

During the nine-day period from Sept. 5 through 13, the City of Clinton handed out approximately 240 notices of property code violations, Code Enforcement Officer Toby Anders said Friday.
Anders said the notices included not only violations of a new mowing ordinance passed Sept. 4 by the City Council but also notices of trash, debris and junked automobiles. The recipients will have 10 days from the time their notices were received to clean up their property.
If they don’t comply, they will be summoned to court or an abatement hearing will be scheduled within five days at which the city could be authorized to hire the work done and the property owner billed. The abatement hearing will be presided over by City Manager Mark Skiles with Anders also in attendance.
The crackdown is partially in response to the new ordinance and council discussion at the same Sept. 4 meeting at which it was approved. Councilmen present indicated they wanted more done to clean up the town.
Anders said the approximate 240 notices were handed out by city employee David Wedel.
“He’s done some code enforcement in the past and also does maintenance work in a number of city departments,” said Anders. He indicated Wedel is almost half done canvassing the town checking for out-of-compliance properties.
The new ordinance requires grass and weeds to be cut if they’re above six inches in height. Contrary to what was printed in the Clinton Daily News on Sept. 6, it still allows the owners 10 days to get the work done after receipt of a violation notice.
But it cuts in half, from 10 days to 5, the amount of time before an abatement hearing can be scheduled at which the city could hire a contract mower to clean up the property and bill the property owner.
“Dave is driving streets and alleys,” Anders said Friday. “He’s checking front yards, back yards and alleys.”
Anders said next week he’ll start rechecking himself those properties that were in violation of the new code to see if they’ve been brought into compliance. If not, an abatement hearing will be scheduled.
He said he already has an abatement hearing scheduled at 2 p.m. Thursday for 11 properties that he himself had found in violation before the new ordinance was adopted. It, like all abatement hearings, is open to the public.
Then on Sept. 26, court hearings before Municipal Judge Pat Cornell are scheduled for seven other property owners.
After rechecking the properties Wedel gave notices to the owners about, Anders said if he finds them still non-compliant he’ll check to see if they’re owned or occupied by someone living in Clinton. If they are, he’ll schedule an abatement hearing; if not, he’ll notify the owners or occupants of a time to appear before Judge Cornell.
“Once we do an abatement hearing, I’ll have a contract mowing service come in and clean the property up, and the owner will be billed,” he said.
The amount of the bill of course depends on how much time the contractor has to spend on it.
“It could be $150 to $300 for the initial mowing depending on how bad it is and how much debris the contractor has to remove,” said Anders.
He said the city has to do a lot of work the public is not aware of on abatements and court hearings. For instance, he said the day before he sends out a certified notice of the hearing he has to take a picture of each property that will be discussed, and then the day of the hearing he has to take another.
“Most people don’t know the process,” he said, explaining that somebody may have an unkempt property next door and call the city expecting something to be done immediately.
“It’s a lengthy process,” he repeated, even though it’s now shortened by the new abatement period. And even in those cases, he said the contract mowers have to submit bids to him on each property to be worked.
Actually, he said probably two-thirds to three-fourths of the people given violation notices will be in compliance when he rechecks their property.
Thus, out of those 240 already given notices, he expects roughly 180 will be in compliance when he rechecks.
The total time they have to bring their property into compliance is shortened by the new ordinance from 20 days to 15.
“Between the initial violation notice being sent to the owner-occupant, they have 10 days to comply,” said Anders. “If they fail to comply, I can hold an abatement hearing five days after that or they can be summoned to appear in court. The 10 days that got changed to 5 is the second step of the process.”
There’s one commercial property among the 11 that will be considered at Thursday’s abatement hearing. It’s the Midtown Travel Inn at 1015 Gary Blvd. which hasn’t been occupied for several months.
Anders said the building itself has shortcomings and the property is weed infested. “The doors are open, the windows are knocked out, and the pool has some water,” he said. “I did a temporary condemnation till they got the water fixed.”