Council wants residents to clean up their acts ... or at least their property

Friday, September 15, 2006

Clean up notices and past due accounts were the main topics of conversation for the Roachdale Town Council Tuesday night.

Council members Bill Long, Jack Jones, and Barbara Scott read through a list consisting of 18 names and addresses where the property owners were in violation of the town's public nuisance ordinance.

Town clerk/treasurer Jennifer Archer told the BannerGraphic that 10 new names and addresses had been recently added to the list, while the other eight had all ready received a letter notifying the owners of the issue.

Archer also said that only three out the original eight responded to the letter and cleaned up their properties. The five that did not respond will be receiving another letter and another 30 days to take care of the property.

The notification letter lets the property owners know they are required to control public nuisances and littering within the town. It also lets them know what on their property must be cleaned up and what will happen if nothing is done to take care of the situation.

The council decided to allow town attorney Tom Casey to put the notification letter on his stationary, providing emphasis to the situation. The council also stressed the need to emphasize that if nothing was done to control the properties, the council would take the matter to court system.

During last month's meeting, the council had approved taking the people who had not paid their bills and left the town to small claims court. At that meeting, Long had suggested using a collection agency to help the council with the list. Archer provided the council will a list of names on past accounts that had not been written off. The total of these claims is an estimated $11,288. The council approved filing the list with small claims as soon as possible.

In other business, the council:

-- Approved the building permit submitted by Anthony Detro to install a carport at his property.

-- Emphasized the town's burning trash or rubbish ordinance. The ordinance states, "No person or persons shall burn any leaves, trash, rubbish, garbage or weeds within the town limits of Roachdale, Ind., except between the hours of 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Any leaves, rubbish, trash, garbage or weeds so burned within the town limits, shall not be burned upon the paved areas of streets and/or sidewalks."

-- Learned that Greg Poole would be flushing the fire hydrants on Wednesday, Sept. 20.

-- Learned that the gas company would be running a new line under U.S. 236. Just west of last month's water break, the council learned there was a gas leak. Long said they thought they had it fixed, but found it to be leaking under the road. The gas company will be laying the new line on Thursday.

The council has scheduled two special meetings for its proposed 2007 budget. A public hearing is scheduled for Friday, Sept. 15 at 6 p.m. and the adoption is scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 26 at 6 p.m. Both of these meetings are open to the public. The regular meeting is set up for Tuesday, Oct. 10 at 6 p.m. This meeting is also open to the public. The council has also set an executive session for Thursday, Sept. 21 at 5 p.m. in the town office to discuss the job performance evaluation of individual employees.

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