Schell City extends cleanup focus to alleyways

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The Schell City council discussed enforcing an ordinance pertaining to blocking alleyways and planning for the demolition of buildings along Main Street during a Wednesday evening meeting.

"I've had it brought to my attention that a few of the alleys in town are being blocked by vehicles, storage, things like old trailers," city clerk Erin Lee said.

"It needs to be moved. We don't block alleys for emergency purposes," councilman Quentin Goodman replied.

Schell City ordinance 12 section 1 reads, "all streets and alleys hereforth dictated as such by the proprietors of the land comprising them, and such as have been established by the board of aldermen of the town of Schell City, and which have not been or shall not be hereafter legally changed or vacated, within the city limits, are hereby declared public highways, and shall at all times be open for the use of the public."

"If we're going to focus on one trailer, we're going to focus on ones that have been blocked for years," councilman David McCubbin said. "There are probably five or six that are blocked and have telephone poles across them."

The council discussed specific locations where alleys were blocked by stored items, or derelict vehicles.

"Do we need to just send letters?" councilman Vicky McKinney asked.

Goodman said an ordinance exists prohibiting the blocking of alleyways.

The council consented to identifying and notifying violators. Lee will compile a list of properties in violation of the ordinance and send letters to the owners.

The next item of business was to organize a meeting to begin planning the demolition of the buildings along Main Street that have been acquired by the city.

With the recent acquisition of Wanda Goodman's property, Schell City now owns three of the five buildings on Main Street south of the community building.

"What are our condemning channels?" McCubbin asked.

"I know it will take going to court," Lee said, explaining she would have to ask the city's legal counsel.

The council discussed the unwillingness of the current owner of the middle building to work with the city to get the property cleaned up. The roof to the building has long since collapsed and a grown tree stands in the middle of the property.

"Let's find out what we have to do to them," McCubbin said.

Discussion then returned to the topic of a meeting to organize the demolition of the buildings the city does own.

"I was thinking it could be a preliminary meeting to find out who is interested in helping, what equipment they may have to use, what skills they have to offer, what might happen with the materials when it comes down," Lee said. "That could take an hour or two."

Mayor Tom Haddix suggested the work being done during the winter to avoid hornets and snakes.

After further discussion, Lee posed the question, "When should we have this meeting?"

"The second Tuesday of next week," Councilman James Conwell replied jokingly, drawing laughter from the council members.

The council consented to holding a planning meeting on Jan. 4, 2017 at 7:30 p.m. or as soon as the council finished the monthly meeting.

"Anybody that is interested in helping, I think would come,' Lee said.

In other business, Conwell expressed concern about customers claiming a faulty water meter resulted in an inaccurate water bill and proposed the meter should be removed and sent for testing and if the meter is reading accurately, the customer's water bill should not be prorated.

Lee said that was part of the ordinance.

"It's fair to them and it's fair to us," Conwell said in advocating the ordinance be enforced.

* The board discussed creating a city website. Lee said the website would allow area residents to access correct information easily.

* The board discussed buying an electronic meter reader for the two water mains from rural water that supply the city so that they can be checked easier. Lee will check on the prices of an electronic meter reader.

Lee said on Friday, that the two lines supplying the city are checked daily in order to identify any large water main breaks or leaks within the city's system.