By Samantha Swindler / Managing Editor

The city of Barbourville is adding some teeth to its grass ordinances concerning several bank-owned or vacant properties.

Mayor David Thompson said that during Thursday’s city council meeting, the council discussed having city employees mow high grass at a half-dozen problem properties.

“We’ve really been working toward the beautification of the city... and we’ve had problems with several homes that have been foreclosed on — bank-owned properties or dilapidated, vacant properties,” Thompson said.

The city’s existing policy allowed 90 days before action was taken for un-mowed grass. According to the city’s new policy, these property owners will be notified by mail and by a door hanger that they are violating the city’s mowing ordinance. After seven days, the city will cut the grass and place a lien on the property. The lien will insure that before the property is ever sold, the city will be reimbursed for its mowing costs.

Thompson said the new, seven-day policy only applies to specific, vacant properties that have been a nuisance. He added that neither he nor the code enforcement officer have ever had a home owner who wasn’t cooperative when approached by the city about high grass at an occupied property.

“I’ve had a dozen complaints on these properties, from snakes and weeds to people walking down sidewalks,” Thompson said. “These are specific properties that have been abandoned for some time. One’s been vacant for 10-15 years.”

Code Enforcement Officer Corey Moore said Barbourville consulted the Kentucky League of Cities organization before making the change.

“I have been in contact with the League of Cities and they gave us the blessing with moving forward with this program,” Moore said. “We are well within our boundaries as far as enforcing this ordinance.

“The problem we’re having right now is with the high grass and weeds, and probably half of these, people have lost them (the houses) back to the bank,” Moore said, adding it’s “next to impossible” to get the banks to maintain the grass on foreclosed homes.

Moore also said the city is planning to create a code enforcement board that will “give a little more teeth” to city code ordinances.

Study Club proposes recycling project

Members of the Barbourville Junior Women’s Study Club also brought a request before the council Thursday for the city to consider starting a recycling program.

“When we first brought it up — it’s been maybe three years ago and we had a different mayor at that time — we were told it’s a little too expensive, it’s not something we can do right now,” said Rita Wood, president of the GFWC/ KFWC Barbourville Women’s Junior Study Club. “But we have just started discussing it with this mayor.”

The club has its own recycling programs, including collecting cans and taking them out-of-town for recycling and bringing their old magazines to the women’s shelter and long-term care facilities so they can be reused.

Wood said the club believes recycling opportunities could help reduce litter.

“When we do PRIDE cleanups, we’ve seen such a mess that could be avoided if there was just a place for people to take their newspapers to, take plastic jugs to, and it’s been one of the things that has bothered us,” Wood said. “We picked up 40 bags of garbage in two miles and that’s ridiculous. If we had a place to recycle — even if people don’t get anything for it, just a free place to drop it off — people would be more likely to do that.”

Wood said councilwoman Jane Skidmore is the club’s sponsor (needed because junior clubs must be sponsored by a general women’s club) and has been the communications link between the junior women and the city council.

“In the long run it would be worth it, but getting it first started and up and running is the hard thing,” Wood said.

Thompson said he is willing to consider the project and has a meeting later this week with a woman who has set up recycling programs in other Kentucky communities. In a previous interview, Thompson said he was considering a recycling drop-off station on city property near where the Battle of Barbourville was held last year, and where a fenced-in area could hold drop-off items.

But he said costs of creating a program and buying needed equipment could make it too expensive for the city to tackle alone.

In other business, the city council accepted funds from a homeland security grant and passed the approximately $3.3 million 2008-09 fiscal year city budget.

The council also went into closed, executive session to discuss personnel issues concerning the 911 dispatch center, but took no action after returning to open session.



Samantha Swindler can be reached at sswindler@thetimestribune.com