After receiving updates on county property owners’ efforts to clean up their properties, the Lowndes County Board of Supervisors Friday unanimously voted to clean up one of the county’s.
County Administrator Ralph Billingsley updated the supervisors on efforts by Donald Goodman and his wife to clean up their property at 154 Nottingham Lane.
“We’ve been working on this property for years,” Billingsley said. “They’ll get the grass mowed and the yard cleaned up and then it will grow back again.”
Billingsley reported notices were mailed to the house, which has been unoccupied for at least six months, and Goodman’s wife contacted him recently, apologizing for the condition of the property and noting the previous contractor hired to maintain the property had not fulfilled his agreement.
“She said they would hire a different contractor,” Billingsley said, adding the Goodmans do not live in Mississippi. “The front has been cleaned, but the back has not been touched. No one has been in that backyard.”
Billingsley will notify the Goodmans the contractor has not finished the work and the supervisors voted to give them until July 31 to clean up the property.
Billingsley also noted efforts were being made to clean up property, owned by someone else, on Concourse Road and another resident’s property on Belle Circle.
“It’s well on its way (to being cleaned),” he reported of the Concourse Road property, but said the Belle Circle property is “not where it needs to be.”
The supervisors voted to give the Belle Circle property owners, who were not identified, until July 31 to clean up the property.
“If the county is going to be after private individuals to keep their property up, the county should do the same with its (property),” Board President and District 1 Supervisor Harry Sanders said, introducing discussion on the Military Road facility formerly occupied by the Lowndes County Health Department. “This property’s been sitting there and people have been breaking into it. Someone even came there and stole some of the shrubbery; they dug it up. And, at night, people are using it as a meeting place. I have no idea what kind of business they’re transacting in the parking lot, but there’s business being transacted.”
“Why doesn’t someone just come in and remove it completely?” agreed District 5 Supervisor Leroy Brooks. “Let’s put it out for bids. The contractor can deal with (disposing of the debris in the) city landfill. We’ll just be through with it.”
The supervisors unanimously voted to get quotes on the cost of demolishing the 12,000-square-foot former Health Department facility, which was built in 1948.
District 2 Supervisor Bill Brigham reported residents’ concerns over the landscaping at the new $2.4 million Health Department facility, located at the corner of Lehmberg and Warpath roads, and Billingsley said he’d look into the situation and report back to the supervisors.
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