Clearing vacant lots in city proving costly

By Tia Lyons

Staff Writer

EL DORADO — It will take $118,000 to hire a contractor to clear overgrown, vacant lots in the city this year, members of the El Dorado City Council learned last Thursday.

Robert Edmonds, director of public works, said the project had been rebid, and the only viable bid the city received was one of $295, per lot, to spray, kill and mow overgrown vegetation on the unsightly properties.

Edmonds said there are an estimated 400, “mow-able, bush hog-able” lots that would be covered by the service.

“We would get a lot more mileage if we spray them, let it sit a couple of weeks and burn down, and cut them,” Edmonds said. “If we bush hog it now with the rain we’re getting, two weeks later, it’ll look the same way.”

Mayor Frank Hash said each lot would likely need a minimum of two cuttings in order to get a good handle on the problem.

Edmonds said one application would address the problem for the remainder of 2016.

“This year, $118,000 would cover it. Next year, we may have to have two cuttings,” he said.

Hash said the council needed to first review the city’s 2016 budget before taking any action on the bid, noting that revenues are coming in at 12 to 13 percent behind the mid-year intake for 2015.

He said the council has other projected expenditures for the year that are related to capital projects and grants with matching components.

“We’ve been running on borrowed time with all of the construction that’s been going on in the city, and now that’s come to a halt,” the mayor said.

Aldermen will convene for a special called meeting at noon on Tuesday to look over the budget.

“I still think we ought to take that money and put it against the deed, register it at the Union County Courthouse) and try to get some of that money back,” Alderman Billy Blann said, reiterating a suggestion he has previously made.

“That’s what’s happened in other cities, and they end up owning the lots, and they just sit there,” City Attorney Henry Kinslow said. “You’ve got to have a buyer. That’s what we don’t have.”

Kinslow pointed to potential legal issues with the city working on private property.

“You can justify it on public health and safety. I don’t have a problem doing it one time and a neighbor taking it on after that,” Kinslow said.

“You do it on a regular basis, and anybody in this town can demand it,” he continued.

Edmonds said cases are rare in which citizens follow through after agreeing to maintain such properties after an initial clearing by the city, but there are some exceptions.

“In the last couple of years, we’ve had seven or eight who called and asked if they could take it on after we clean it, and they’ve kept it up,” Edmonds said.

Several city officials also noted that finding and sorting out property owner(s) can be a lengthy process

“With every death, the names on the lot may triple with heirs. You can put a tax lien on it, but you don’t have a buyer to get the taxes back,” Edmonds said.

Added Hash, “We don’t take this lightly. We’ve tried various options, and we just can’t crack the code.”

Alderman Willie McGhee inquired about the use of labor from Union County Jail inmates who are working off fines or defendants who are sentenced to community service.

Hash said Sheriff Mike McGough restricted the use of the Arkansas 309 program in the Union County Jail because of increasing incidents with inmates returning from work assignments with prohibited articles furnished by family and friends.

Additionally, Hash said, there have been issues concerning who is permitted to search inmates who are under city supervision.

‘You have no right to shoot someone over property’

The council also heard from citizen Felix Jackson, who complained of problems with vandalism and other problems in his neighborhood in the area of West First and Hayes.

Jackson said juveniles and other young people often come from the nearby Haygood- Neal Garden Apartments and throw rocks and bottles at buildings and houses belonging to him and his neighbors.

They also throw rocks at passing vehicles on West Hillsboro and stationary vehicles on a car lot on the corner of Hillsboro and Hayes, he said.

Jackson said he and his neighbors — residential and commercial — have had to replace broken windows, and he said his brother recently scared off an intruder who was trespassing underneath Jackson’s carport late at night.

“He ran through my neighbor’s yard. They come through there playing loud music, cussing …” Jackson said.

He told city officials that he has helped to furnish items, such as computers and a basketball, to help provide young people in the area with constructive activities.

Jackson said he has also identified the people that he believes are responsible for the criminal acts and reported them to the Haygood-Neal property managers and city police, to no avail.

“This situation has been going on for four years. If they get shot, I don’t know what they’re going to do,” said Jackson’s brother, Verge Jackson.

“We’re trying to get someone on the city council to understand. If something happens over there, will the law protect us? We have the right to protect our property,” Verge Jackson continued.

“You have no right to shoot someone over property,” Hash said. “I would caution anybody not to shoot anybody over property. If they threaten you inside your home, that’s another matter.”

Alderman Willie McGhee said the Jacksons were expressing frustration after having tried various avenues to address the problem.

“It’s up to us to see what we can do when we have citizens at the end of their rope, and when they feel like they have to take physical action to protect themselves, that’s a major problem,” McGhee said.

McGhee said he had spoken with the Jacksons and recommended that they speak with their Ward Two aldermen, Vance Williamson and Judy Ward.

Williamson said he had discussed the problem with Felix Jackson.

Police Chief Billy White invited the Jacksons to speak with him in his office, and he said police have spoken with Haygood-Neal property managers who have inquired about hiring police as off-duty security officers for the complex.

Alderman Mike Rice, a former El Dorado police officer, said he worked for 10 years as a security officer at Haygood Neal.

Hash said he previously wrote a letter to the out-of-town property owners, and some improvements were made then, including the firing of a property manager.

McGhee advised the Jacksons to take their grievances to White.

“Give him a chance to act on it,” McGhee said.

The council also heard the first reading of a proposed ordinance to clean up some errors in the boundary description of the city’s Commercial Historic District.

Tia Lyons may be contacted at 870-862-6611 or by email at tlyons@ eldoradonews. com.

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