GARFIELD -- A public hearing was held prior to a special City Council meeting scheduled for the afternoon of Friday, July 29, but was not convened due to lack of a quorum.
Mayor Gary Blackburn sent notification to The TIMES for a special City Council meeting and public hearing to be held at 1 p.m. Friday, July 29. Only one council member, Leonard Matthew Jr., attended.
The hearing was to consider placing a lien on property owned by Judith Champion who lives in Dallas. Champion was at the hearing, as were city code enforcement officer Zannie Morrison and his wife, Susie.
Mrs. Morrison said she was the "initial instigator" of getting that property cleaned up and that the property in question was next to her property. She said the resident of the property did not have proper sewer connections and used a bucket to dump raw sewage onto her property.
"That's a health issue. They took our fences down. They built buildings on our property. We asked them to remove them. They threatened us," she said, adding that she had offered an acre of land with sewer connections to the resident.
The mayor presented a bill for work done by Robert Button of Northwest Utilities in clearing the property and removing debris. Matthew asked whether the work had been bid; Blackburn said it had not.
The mayor said Button does work at the same rate for the city that he did on Champion's property. "Actually, it was a little less because of the immensity of the job," Blackburn said. "I did demand from the contractor that he keep as meticulous a record as he could."
Mrs. Champion said she did not have enough time to get someone to clean the property after the initial notification nor did she receive a letter from the city attorney about the lien process.
Work began in March clearing the property, the mayor said.
After an hour of discussion, the mayor closed the hearing and announced there would not be a council meeting due to lack of a quorum.
General News on 08/10/2016