Ward 1 Councilwoman Ethel Stewart has a message: Just because you pay taxes doesn’t mean you can do what you want with your property.
Stewart, during a Thursday ward meeting held at Townsend Park and attended by about a dozen citizens, took aim not just at dilapidated property in her ward, but at the people who think blight cleanup somehow is a moneymaker for the city.
“You want to make somebody mad?” she said. “Put a (blighted property) sign in their yard and tell them they need to clean it up or they need to board up their house. … Sometimes people have things that are raggedy, and they tell me, ‘I pay taxes. I should be able to do whatever I want to do.’”
Stewart said the city needs to do what it takes to guarantee “cleanliness, peace and order” in a neighborhood.
“I don’t think anyone in here wants to live in a neighborhood where someone’s got half the windows broken out of the house and doors open and cats and dogs going out,” she said. “You can’t tell if it’s a dog house or a human house.”
Stewart said remediating those dilapidated properties is time-consuming and involves a lot of “red tape,” but a recent infusion of federal funds will help the city’s efforts.
The city council dedicated $500,000 of its federal American Recovery Plan Act funding to a blight remediation program that will buy troubled properties and try to repair or redevelop them. The city also received $3 million in federal grant funds to put towards blight issues.
“We did receive federal funds for dilapidated properties and they’re working to get the paperwork done and everything fine-tuned so we can get some of these raggedy homes torn down,” Stewart said. “… If it’s fixable, we need to fix it. If it’s not, we need to tear it down.”
Stewart said there is a misconception that the city profits somehow from tearing down houses and remediating blighted property, but that is far from the truth.
“Once a house is torn down, it creates an expense for the city,” she said. “…The city does not own that property. We get nothing from it. We’re losing money on it. We go after someone, we have to get (City Attorney Jeff Turnage) involved. Sometimes we can fine someone but sometimes we can’t.”
Legally the city can put a tax lien against a blighted property to recuperate what it spent to bring it back to code.
Many troubled properties are owned by out-of-towners, she said, which makes enforcement more difficult because heirs can be hard to trace.
“Citizens are really upset (about an overgrown lot) so we go and cut it,” she said. “We incur that expense and there’s almost no way to go back and recover that cost. The city can’t afford to be the gardener for a lot owned by someone else.”
Slow it down
Stewart said she’s received many citizen complaints about speeding and drag racing on the streets in her ward. Police Chief Joseph Daughtry, who attended the meeting, said the department is preparing to step up traffic enforcement.
“Our manpower is getting back up, and we’re ready to put people back out there in the traffic division,” Daughtry said. “We’re going to start off with two (officers), and they’re not going to answer calls for service unless it’s a hot call.”
Those officers will go to hotspots and concentrate on traffic enforcement, he said.
“They’re going to eat them up,” he said. “People are going to call the mayor’s office, and (Chief Operations Officer Jammie Garrett) and (Stewart) and complain. … We had one person call my office and complain because she was only going 12 miles over the speed limit (and got a ticket).”
Daughtry encouraged anyone with concerns about crime to contact the police department directly.
“CPD is accessible, and if you need something, come by there,” he said. “This city is keeping me really busy so I’m not always at the office. If I’m not there, ask for the supervisor on duty or ask for the captain. We have somebody there that can talk to you.”
Brian Jones is the local government reporter for Columbus and Lowndes County.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 32 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 32 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
Join the Discussion