Instead of spring cleaning, the Newton City Council embarked on a fall cleaning plan during last Tuesday night’s regular board meeting to encourage home owners to get properties cleaned and repaired.
During July and August board meetings, the council discussed with city attorney Brian Mayo the necessary steps the city would need to follow to ensure property owners clean and maintain property according to existing city ordinances. Mayo advised the board that in addition to notifying the property owner and lienholders, the city needed to develop a calendar and tracking system. Unkempt lawns, broken down cars, and structures in need of repair have all come under discussion in recent weeks during regular meetings and the recent town hall meeting.
During the town hall meeting two weeks ago, citizens discussed eye sores that they said had been problematic for years. At that time, Mayo and councilmembers advised that they were working toward solutions, and they continued to make progress Tuesday night by setting two hearings for property owners at 801 South Main Street and 503 West Church Street. Those two property owners have been notified of an October 4 hearing before the city council. The hearing will provide the city and property owners an opportunity to discuss the problems and the owner’s intention to repair or the city’s intention to tear down. Mayo also presented the council with another stack of files representing other properties that had come on to the calendar.
In addition to setting up a tracking system, Mayo told the board he also wanted to revisit the wording of some notices the city sends to property owners considered “repeat offenders.”
“What I want to do is readdress the notices that the city puts out there to clean those up and get them to where they read the proper way, and then you can start sending out notices,” Mayo said.
Councilman Eric McCalphin asked what the courtesy letter and hearing process entailed because he had noted that the city of Meridian had started tearing houses down. “What’s legally holding us back from doing this?” he asked. “The process is still the same? We’ve got to go through this long drawn out process before we can just go in and say enough is enough?”
“The process is cleaned up now,” Mayo replied. “We just went through it for the first time ever in the city with these.”
“What you can do is, if they ever get to the point where they have a hearing and we have to go on the property, we have that notice saying we can come back on your property if we need to and clean up six times in a two year period and charge you for it. Then, that’s it. You don’t have to send them any more notices or anything else. We have discretion in that, but until we actually have a hearing, we don’t have that discretion.”
In the courtesy letter process, Mayo further explained that a property owner doing the requested cleaning means the process starts all over again. Without action from the property owner within 30 days after a courtesy letter is received, the property then goes into the tracking system toward a hearing.
In other business, the council:
*approved the hiring of certified police officer Phillip McKee at the rate of $14 per hour and full-time fire fighter Dustin Evans at the rate of $10 per hour
*approved the tax levy of 35 mills for 2023
*adopted the 2023 budget
*approved the tax equalization rolls
After a short executive session to discuss personnel matters, the council returned from executive session and unanimously approved the three-day unpaid suspension of police officer Tracy Gray and the termination of fire fighter Justin McKinnon.
