Cleanup order sees little progress

ROACHDALE -- At the town's first public meeting of 2016, Roachdale was asked by a local family to "give us one more chance -- please."

Sherry Bell, acting for mother Ruby and accompanied by two family members, updated the town board Tuesday on the progress of a court-ordered cleanup mandated to her property at 102 W. Railroad St.

The Bell family, after being receiving intruction by mutliple agencies (the Putnam County Board of Health, the Town of Roachdale and Superior Court Judge Charles Bridges) to not only clean up the property, but to acquire a dumpster by Jan. 3, has failed to do so.

Issues with the Bell family property have purportedly persisted for nearly four years.

One problem Bell reported was that, despite not filing a police report, the money she had intended to use had been stolen from her car before she was able to acquire the dumpster. A report has allegedly been filed with her bank.

Though some improvements have been reported on the property, council members cited that "improvements have happened before."

"My problem is, I've been on the board for four years," president Zach Bowers said. "We come to you guys and say, 'you need to clean this up' and we tell you time and time again to clean this up."

Bell rebuttled, saying she has never been to a meeting, to which Bowers replied, "Yes, you have."

In addition minor disagreements on attendance to past meetings and weather intrusion, Bell accused Roachdale Town Marshal Mike Mahoy of violating the law by entering buildings on her property to take pictures. However, Mahoy ardently denied this, saying he went onto the property but never into a building.

Town attorney Dave Peebles backed up Mahoy by stating that municipal employees are legally allowed access to private properties during open investigations.

Turning the attention away from the matter at hand, Bell said, "It's the town's fault this happened anyway."

"It's the town's fault we lost everything," Bell said. "We lost our home and everything we owned."

Bell was referring to a time when the Board of Health ordered her to destroy a trailer on the property due to its state. This supposedly happened around the same time her daughter was battling cancer.

Bell cited "harassment" from the town at that time.

"I was trying to take care of my daughter with the town harassing me about getting the trailer torn down," Bell said. "It's why we got in this mess."

"It was the Board of Health, not the town, that made you tear down that trailer," Mahoy replied.

Due to recent elections, two of the board's three council positions are filled by newly-elected officials.

"I think the people who have been dealing with it are tired of it," newly-elected Councilwoman Holly Cook said. "But I'm new and I believe that you are working on it now, I just don't know how long you need."

The Bells then formally requested a six-week extension due to poor weather conditions, promising repeatedly that the work will be done.

The Bells received the extension by a 2-1 vote, with Bowers dissenting. A dumpster now must be acquired by Feb. 3 (despite an order from Judge Bridges to acquire one by Jan. 3, an attempt allegedly blocked by a thief) to assist the cleanup which must now be completed by Feb. 23.