STARKVILLE — Almost four months after aldermen gave Dwight Prisock some time to start improvements on four dilapidated structures he owns on Ruth Road, there’s been no substantial change.
Prisock’s properties on Tuesday again came before aldermen for code enforcement hearings during a regular board meeting. This time, grace wasn’t on the agenda.
Aldermen unanimously declared an inhabited apartment complex and three vacant houses Prisock owns a public menace and ordered them torn down.
The board took particular issue with the strip of apartments, which one resident still occupies, where photos clearly showed the plastic covering several places where the roof had fallen in.
“This is a deplorable property and deplorable living conditions,” Ward 5 Alderman Hamp Beatty said during the hearing at City Hall. “This is as bad, or maybe the worst, property I’ve seen in Starkville since I’ve been on the board.”
The board on Dec. 5 gave Prisock four months to start construction work to fix the apartment complex and six months to start work on two of the vacant houses. He assented to the city’s assistance in burning the other vacant house.
Mayor Lynn Spruill told The Dispatch Prisock has not sought a building permit for any of the work. The city checked for asbestos in the house Prisock said he wanted burned, according to Spruill, but when city officials notified him they could commence demolition, he asked them to wait. Prisock said Tuesday he was looking for someone to remove and cap water lines that would otherwise be damaged.
In December’s hearing, Prisock claimed Code Enforcement Officer Sarah Perez trespassed because she walked onto his property without a warrant to take photos that were used against him. Perez restarted the enforcement process by taking photos from the road Jan. 4, less than a month after the board issued Prisock deadlines to start improvements. She then obtained warrants to enter the properties.
Spruill said code enforcement restarted the process before the grace period ended partly because Prisock had taken no action and partly to nullify his argument of the city improperly obtaining evidence.
“We wanted to do the process correctly as it relates to what he saw as our error,” she said.
Accompanied Tuesday by his attorney Gary Goodwin, Prisock said he’s done “some work” at the apartment complex, but poor health has continued to hinder his progress. He also claims Perez’s warrant is tainted by her previously entering his property without one.
Goodwin claims the city is selectively prosecuting Prisock because he opposed the city’s 2023 annexation of the area that includes the condemned structures.
“They are making economic choices for people,” Goodwin told The Dispatch after Tuesday’s hearing, referring to the city. “They are trying to make Starkville look like something that it’s not. It’s not always going to be pink houses and white picket fences.”
During the hearing, though, aldermen dug in on why Prisock has allowed a resident to live in squalor. When pressed, Prisock said the man had lived in the apartment complex for 20 years and is a military veteran.
“He doesn’t want to move,” Prisock said.
Goodwin also noted at the hearing the resident “doesn’t pay rent to Mr. Prisock.”
“That’s not germane to the health and safety of that particular property,” Spruill replied.
Prisock further claimed the board never instructed him on particular ways to repair the structures. Later, Spruill noted Prisock had served as the building official in West Point, noting “you, of all people, should have known.”
Prisock said he had been involved in construction since 1960 and “would have a pretty good idea” what needed to be done.
After the meeting, Goodwin said Prisock may appeal Tuesday’s decision.
“The city of Starkville will probably do what it wants to do because that’s what the city of Starkville does anyway,” Goodwin said.
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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