The photos above and below are courtesy of Greg Roberts, President of the East Spring Street Neighborhood Association, who adds:
"I would like to request that the New Albany City Council come out to 317 East 10th Street and clean up this mess! Please bring your rakes, shovels and a police officer with you. You will need an officer with you to handle these people. Why should we have to live near dumps like this? Why should we have to put up with absentee landlords that don't care for anything except that monthly check? This needs to be addressed NOW!"
The photos originally were posted on the Clean Up New Albany forum, where a discussion can be found here.
As of Monday, August 22, it has been three weeks since the city council's obstructionist Gang of Four staged its sit-down strike against ordinance enforcement in New Albany.
Don't forget, we have a building commissioner on the payroll right now whose job is to take care of problems like this. It would be worth a call to him to ask why he isn't doing his job.
ReplyDeleteEver since the Gang of Four trashed ordinance enforcement, and some explanation was needed to justify their action, the trog spin has been that heck, who needs an OEO when we already have a building commissioner to do the same thing - and he ain't doing it.
ReplyDeleteFair enough, then. Tomorrow I'll attend the Public Works meeting and ask about this: What is the building commissioner's job? Is he doing it or not?
And so on. I'll report back with the findings.
Roger, I'm all about getting as much help with ordinance enforcement as possible. But the question still remains: why isn't the department that is supposed to be handling this now not handling it?
ReplyDeleteI have fought this battle in the past, and here is the list of excuses I got for inaction. These came from former building commissioner Terry Ginkins and Mayor England.
1. The department is busy and understaffed.
2. Unless the complaint is from a tenant, the department can do nothing.
3. We don't legislate morality (no, I'm not making this one up)
4. You're prejudiced against minorities and/or poor people and that's why you've complained.
5. The courts are too full to handle enforcement.
6. We have made an inspection, and no problem exists.
Please report back on the response you get. To me, the only acceptable one would be, "We'll look into this and take action to remedy the problem."
Roger, also please ask why there is no ongoing inspection program, and why it's left to the public to complain. This has always puzzled me. The building commissioner should be able to see these problems without citizens having to go around and take photos.
Also, try to find out how may inspectors are in the department's budget. I think several are budgeted for, but I am only aware of one on staff.
I'll ask these questions, and see what answers are given.
ReplyDeleteAnd we'll go from there.
That's great. I assume you called the Street Dept.
ReplyDeleteIt might be a good idea to start with the street department if there's a lot of debris sitting out. They usually just ask the address and what the junk consists of, so it isn't necessary that the person who set it out be the one who makes the call.
In this case it looks like the trash is piled up in the area where the garbage would normally be picked up so one would assume that it is intended to be trash and the street department would pick it up if requested.
ReplyDeleteI think it is a different situation if the trash is piled in the yard, around the house, etc. Not sure the street department would get involved if it wasn't fairly clear that the items were meant to be trash.
Thanks Greg.
ReplyDeleteIt's kind of hard to tell from the pictures. I couldn't quite place the location and I am trapped here at work (12 or more hours a day many days).
I have noticed a couple places that seem to be used by someone who is evidently driving by and dumping garbage.
Sounds like this is a problem with the residents of the property. And should, ultimately, be the landlord's responsibility.
Can't even imagine how frustrated you must be with the lack of progress on this issue.