KINGWOOD — A bucket of human feces. Piles of garbage. The stench of burning trash from a stovepipe stuck out a window. Sewage pumped onto the property.
All these and more are problems a High Street man told Kingwood Council he has had to contend with.
“The house next to me is a hazard. It’s a dump,” James Pettit said.
Pettit mows the front yard “because I can’t stand to pull into my driveway and look over.” In the back he put up a privacy fence.
He has video of sewage being pumped from the basement and flowing onto his property by his pool.
The property owner, Dan Himes, said Wednesday that he had people there that day cleaning up the property.
“I’ve been having renters in there and they tore it up,” Himes said. “I’ve been trying to get rid of it.”
He has people coming to look at the property next month and would like to sell it, he said. “It was some lousy renters,” who caused the damage, he said.
Kingwood Police Chief Charlie Haney said he went more than once to the house on complaints on the former tenants. But, he said, some of what was being said isn’t a police matter.
“I don’t know to say, but something needs to be done,” Pettit said.
Mayor Jean Guillot used the example as one more reason the city needs to contract with a building maintenance inspector and follow through with its laws on abandoned and dilapidated buildings.
“The problem is nothing gets done,” Guillot said. “These houses that are vacant and falling down, that didn’t happen overnight.”
Council backed him as far as putting aside $50,000 in the rehab of property fund that can be used once structures are condemned. The city can demolish condemned buildings after it follows the legal process but its only way of recouping the expense is by putting a lien on the property. That may not pay off for years.
The first expenditure will be tearing down the house at the city-owned Maplewood Cemetery as soon as asbestos is removed by a contractor. But there are needs all over town, Guillot said.
“If you drive around town, there’s quite a few of them,” that need addressed, the mayor said. “Our system’s not working.”
The city has been talking with Morgantown Code Enforcement about contracting with a building maintenance inspector, who can enforce city codes. The problem, the mayor said, is the city supervisor tells people to clean up, then police go around if the order isn’t followed, and then it seems to fall by the wayside.
Councilwoman Karen Kurilko said she and City Clerk Michelle Whetsell will work on a system and report back to council. Last year a similar action was taken.
Councilman Mike Lipscomb noted three properties came off the bad buildings list recently.
Council also:
- agreed to outsource billing for water, sewer and garbage bills. All are sent out together and the cost shared by the city, water department and sewer department. It will save money and free workers to do other things, council was told.
- reappointed Rich McCrobie as city judge for another year.
- told the city supervisor to get a second bid for a garbage truck. Council wants to replace the 2007 model packer.
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