County Leaders Consider Condemning Crumbling Structures

By Alyssa Schnugg
Staff writer
alyssa.schnugg@hottytoddy.com

One minute you’re at home on your land and the next thing you know, you’re in a nursing home or a hospital and can’t tend to you land anymore.

The Lafayette County Board of Supervisors can only help people in these situations if the property is condemned.
On Aug. 20, the board will determine whether two county properties meet the criteria to be condemned so that the county can go on the property to clean it up and remove any hazardous structures.
“We’re not going around looking for unclean properties,” said Building Inspector Joel Hollowell Monday. “These were reported to us by concerned citizens.”
The owner of the first property discussed, located on County Road 514, is owned by an elderly man who is now living in a nursing home.
“We can’t find any next of kin,” Hollowell said.
The property has several dilapidated structures, and the main house also appears to be in disrepair, Hollowell said.
“The other structures are close to the property line and it’s easy to determine that it’s a public nuisance,” he said. “Residents are complaining about rodents and snakes because of the unkempt property.”
Over on County Road 2001, piles of industrial-sized empty food cans and scrap metal litter the yard. Old mattresses are piled on top of the debris. There is one house and one mobile home on the property. A man rents and lives in the mobile home.
Hollowell said the wooden frame, single-family home looks like it’s about to collapse. He hasn’t been able to contact the property owner.
If the supervisors vote to condemn the two properties, county crews will go onto the property and clean it up to remove structures that are structurally unsafe and pose a risk. The cost to clean up the property will then be added to the property taxes.
Supervisor Chad McClarty agreed the property on CR 514 was an “eyesore.”
“I would like us to go on the property and clean it up,” he said. “We need to look at the house, too. I hate that it’s got to go this direction but something has to be done.”
The property on CR 2001 is in Supervisor David Rikard’s district He said after visiting the property he agrees something needs to be done.
“It looks like it could collapse at any time,” Rikard said.