By BOB SHRALUKA
WZBD.com
Social media comments on code enforcement in Decatur again raised the ire of city officials at Tuesday night’s meeting of the city’s board of works and safety.
Earlier comments which, in general, seemed to say the city was “picking on” certain owners of homes violating city codes, had been brought out at the previous board of works meeting.
City officials pointed out then that enforcement is mostly driven by complaints by neighbors, and that the issues which come before the city’s board of works are due to people repeatedly ignoring communications from the city.
The pot began to boil at Tuesday night’s board meeting as Building/Zoning Director Curt Witte, whose department is in charge of enforcing city codes, talked about a home at 133 N. Eighth St.
It is owned by CONNEX, a company in Huntsville, Alabama, which apparently has no desire to do anything about the deteriorating structure, despite pleas from Decatur officials.
Witte said his department has entered into a contract with Advanced Demolition Services to raze the building and haul away what’s left.
Advanced will charge the city $18,691 for the demolition. Meanwhile, Witte said he is awaiting a report on possible asbestos in the building; if it’s discovered, its removal will drive up the cost – for which the Alabama company will be billed..
The building is beginning to dangerously lean toward a home to its south; only an estimated eight feet separate the structures, Witte replied to a question.
“It’s a safety factor. So I want to question the person who said (on social media) that we are having too much code enforcement,” Mayor Dan Rickord said. “How would you like to have your house near that one? This is a safety thing.
“And again,” he continued, “most of this (complaints) comes from neighbors.”
A story which had originally been on WZBD.com pointed out that over 450 code enforcement issues have come before the city this year.
In one of several comments on the story, one reader posted: “I hope I’m not out of line here, but personally I think the city is spending too much time on code enforcement. While it is important, 450 claims seems high. I realize things change, this is a huge increase from a few years ago. My other issue is that it continues to be a news item. Does this really need to be in the media?”
Councilman Matt Dyer remarked at the meeting that if there were over 450 code issues received by the city, “that means that only a dozen or 15 have come to this point,” meaning well over 400 have been quietly resolved without reaching public view.
“And ignoring some of these issues for years is why it has come to this,” he added.
Both Rickord and Witte noted that they have, in recent days, been thanked by people for enforcing a cleanup of a structure and its grounds.
The mayor, Sirk and another councilman, Craig Coshow, praised the work of Witte and his department and thanked them for their work on enforcing the codes.