Residents push city cleanup

DAVENPORT - Resident Stan Reider called on the City Council to take steps to clean up nuisance properties and junk vehicles.

During a Wednesday, Aug. 26 meeting, he pointed to Lincoln County Record-Times coverage of Odessa's nuisance fees and asked why Davenport cannot follow the same process to clean up the city

After three letters, he said, Odessa crews clean up the property, bill the owner and place a lien on the property.

"I'm wondering, why can't we accomplish that," Reider said.

He listed properties he said violate city rules, including a house by the middle school, about 10 vehicles and a motorhome on Morgan Street, two vehicles in an alley and dilapidated cars at an intersection.

Councilmen Cory Hollis and Michael Wilkinson questioned why there are nuisance issues when a city employee was supposedly hired to split time equally between public works and addressing code violations.

"We haven't seen crap," Hollis said of code enforcement actions.

Wilkinson asked how code enforcement is going and that he had heard the employee was driving around, writing down properties and bringing the list to City Hall.

City Administrator David Leath said he was the one driving around.

"The gentleman was hired as a maintenance worker, not as a code-enforcement officer," Leath said.

Councilman Lance Strite said the original plan was a summer hire who would become full-time with code enforcement duties.

"I believe that it changed to a full-time position maintenance worker," Strite said. "Therefore, the code enforcement dropped off."

Mayor Brad Sweet said the duties are not interchangeable.

"It's two different jobs," he said.

In other business, the council heard from:

• Lincoln County Historical Society President John Stiles about an electric vehicle constantly plugged into a charger. People have asked if they can unplug the vehicle after waiting two hours, he said, asking to post a two-hour limit and have vehicles overstaying towed.

• Resident Karen Kearney, who said a memorial near Bible Fellowship Church has bricks falling off. "There's a memorial there to someone that died, and it's in terrible shape," Kearney said. "It makes me kind of sad that we would honor somebody who gave their life, and we would let their memorial not look good."