Officials talk property problems
Abandoned and boarded-up homes and overgrown city cemeteries – perpetual problems that haunt Augusta – were once more a focus Tuesday of Augusta Commission committees and city departments seeking to solve them.
Since 2006, the city has allowed homeowners to "mothball" properties, and since 2007 it has issued 233 permits to mothball and board up and secure them, said Terrence Wynder, the manager of Code Enforcement. An inspection has to find that the outside is structurally sound, and the homeowner pays a $75 fee and then has to secure and board up the property, he said.
"Then you have six months," Wynder said, to come back, remove the boards and do something with the property. Homeowners can file for a three-month extension, which also involves an inspection and another $75 fee. After that, the city can cite and ultimately take the property to court, but it might remain boarded up.
"Would you rather have a house that has exceeded the time (boarded up) or open and vacant" and prone to being broken into for shelter, Wynder asked.
Most cities either do not have a mothball ordinance or don't enforce it, but some have tried different approaches to get owners to clean up properties, Wynder said. Savannah, Ga., for instance, charges those properties an increased tax rate, he said.
"But what happens when someone is not paying the taxes?" Wynder said. "It won't work."
Macon, Ga., has 2,000 dilapidated properties waiting for funding to take care of them, he said.
Tax Commissioner Steven Kendrick has started to do more judicial in-rem tax sales, which involves taking the property through the court system and allows the buyer quicker access to it and title than the usual tax sales, Wynder said.
Commissioner Marion Williams called it a "sad, sad song" he is tired of hearing.
"We need to do some things," he said. "We need to get progressive. There's so many of these properties around Augusta. That shouldn't be."
But Georgia affords strong rights to property owners, Wynder said.
"We can't just take anyone's property just because they aren't doing anything with it," he said.
Wynder said he would bring back recommendations for improvements in January.
The Recreation and Parks Department is currently maintaining three large city cemeteries and eight smaller ones, totaling almost 154 acres, Director Glenn Parker said. Compared to Augusta Municipal Golf Course, "we're maintaining something bigger than that," he said. For next year, the department's inmate crews and others used by departments including engineering will be called upon to make sure the cemeteries are kept in shape, Parker said,
"We're going to pull them off landscaping and we're going to pull them off" other areas, he said.
The idea would be to cut down the number of days it takes to maintain some of the larger cemeteries as well as get to the smaller ones. Beginning in the winter, the city will make a strong push for weed control and starting in late April will spray to prevent weeds and slow growth, Parker said.
Part of the problem is that over the years the city has inherited maintaining some small family cemeteries that the city doesn't technically own, he said. Parker asked whether the Law Department could research how the city came by those responsibilities and whether it should continue or if the owners should reimburse the city.
"Someone should be paying us if they want us to do that," he said.
COMING SUNDAY
Augusta is plagued by hundreds of abandoned and dilapidated properties and it is costing the city millions to clean them up.
All over Augusta but especially in the inner city, blighted and abandoned properties, many of them burned, mar the landscape. Augusta departments are working together to address them, but it is a slow process that is costing the city millions of dollars.
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In other business Tuesday, Augusta Commission committees:
• Approved new sewer and water rates for Augusta Utilities that Director Tom Wiedmeier said would be revenue neutral but would get rid of "anomalies" that could make a customer's bill jump for slightly higher usage and change the minimum charge from up to 3,000 gallons a month to charging less for usage under that amount. "It's a much simpler and I think fairer rate," he said.
• Approved awarding a $5.65 million contract to E.R. Snell Contractor to do pedestrian and bicyclist improvement projects on 15th Street between John C. Calhoun Expressway and Central Avenue. The work, a Transportation Investment Act project, would add sidewalks and bike lanes on both sides and some landscaping in medians, Engineering Director Hameed Malik said.
• Approved new fees for renting Lake Olmstead Stadium for events, such as $2,500 to rent the stadium and $1,000 to rent the massive deck along right field. Those who have expressed interest in using the venue have reviewed the fees and are comfortable with them, Recreation and Parks Director Glenn Parker said. The fees are temporary and will be adjusted as the city decides what it wants to do with the old ballpark, he said.
• Received information from the Richmond County Board of Elections that the referendum allowing Sunday alcohol sales to begin at 11 a.m. was approved by voters Nov. 6 "and is now in effect," according to the item submitted by Planning and Development Director Rob Sherman.