City Manager Eric Williams will discuss with the City Council tonight a more aggressive approach to attacking some of the abandoned structures in Henderson.
Williams and city staff held a meeting last week to discuss the process of “summary abatement,” in which a building is declared a hazard to public health and safety and condemned in a process that can be completed in weeks instead of the six months usually needed for a standard condemnation.
As an example of the problems of the long process, the Code Compliance Department was ready to move for an ordinance ordering the demolition of a house on Eaton Street, only to discover a typographical error in a legal notice published in The Daily Dispatch at the start of the process. Even though each of the owners of the house was notified by certified mail of each legal step, City Attorney John Zollicoffer convinced the City Council on May 9 that the glitch voided the entire process, and now the Code Compliance Department must start over.
Williams wants to apply the speeded-up process only to badly burned buildings in the city and intends to bring an ordinance to the council for its consideration in the near future. The advantage of applying the process only to fire-damaged structures is that the city has its own fire inspector; Henderson would have to go to the county building inspector for summary abatement of buildings that have been damaged by natural forces over time.
The idea is not new, but Henderson has not tried the approach. Richard Ducker of the Institute of Government at the University of North Carolina discussed summary abatement at a meeting with the Clean Up Henderson Committee in August 2003. Williams, Zollicoffer and Mayor Clem Seifert, then a council member, attended that meeting.
Pressure on the issue of abandoned buildings is growing even as the city scrapes to find the money to tear houses down.
It has been the dominant issue for the cleanup committee in the past year, and proposed legislation in the state House would appropriate $200,000 that could be applied in part or in whole to demolishing dilapidated houses. The cleanup committee expressed frustration at its last meeting, May 11, about the lack of civil penalties assessed for abandoned buildings, as well as overgrown yards and other nuisances. Williams on May 15 rejected the first appeal of a civil penalty for a dilapidated structure, applied to 1002 Standish St. And members of the Vance County Coalition Against Violence plan to attend today’s Speak Up Henderson forum at 6 p.m. to address the city’s priorities in choosing which of the more than 200 abandoned buildings to target.
It’s important to note that rapidly condemning burned buildings won’t produce any money to demolish them, but they’ll be cleared for demolition whenever the money is available.
Also on the crowded council agenda tonight:
* Two Henderson police officers, Joseph Amos and LaMont Burchette, will be honored with the city Police Department’s Medal of Valor for their actions in stopping a suicide attempt at the Ruin Creek Road bridge over Interstate 85 in December.
* The council will be asked to approve a change to the civil-penalties ordinance it passed a year ago. Under the amendment, the owner of a nuisance motor vehicle would face a $200 penalty when the vehicle is towed; the ordinance now calls for the penalty when the vehicle is advertised for sale.
* Two budget amendments are up for consideration, both involving the Police Department. The first would spend $3,733 in insurance proceeds on the repair of a wrecked police vehicle. The other would use $2,481 in federal drug-seizure money to buy an electronic traffic-monitoring device like the one the city borrowed from the Kerr-Tar Regional Council of Governments to measure traffic on Granite Street.
* A public hearing will be held on a zoning ordinance amendment that would require a special-use permit to open an enclosed auto repair facility in the I-2 (industrial) and B-2 and B-2A (business) zones. Other business zones already require a special-use permit, but those three zones now allow auto repair facilities by right.
* Bill Edwards of the Henderson-Vance County Chamber of Commerce and the Rev. Frank Sossamon of South Henderson Pentecostal Holiness Church will make their arguments about the Chamber’s request to close Breckenridge Street between Garnett and Chestnut streets June 23 for an Alive After Five. The event would include beer sales, assuming the state grants its usual one-time special-use permit. Williams notified the council May 13 that he supports the street closure but will not move ahead with the request until the council gives him direction because of the involvement of alcohol on city property. City Engineer Frank Frazier notified Edwards on April 11 that the paving on Breckenridge Street should be done before June 23. But as of today extensive work remains on Wyche Street, and the labor-intensive installation of brick pavers in the circle between the police station and the library hasn’t been done.
* The maintenance director for Vance County Schools, Claiborne Woods, will appear to discuss traffic problems at the dropoff/pickup area in front of E.M. Rollins Elementary School. Police and school officials recommend erecting a 4-foot-high Jersey barrier along the center of the road to prevent illegal parking, illegal U-turns and dangerous child crossings of the street amid the traffic. The barriers would not be a city expense.
* Roy Williams from Energy Systems Group, formerly Progress Energy Solutions, will discuss a possible agreement between his company and the city to enact a guaranteed energy savings plan. Under such a deal, the contractor carries out energy-saving renovations financed over a period of time during which the changes will pay for themselves in money saved on utilities. Woods could be an expert witness on the matter because he worked with Progress Energy Solutions on such a project for the school system.
* Public Utilities Committee Chairman John Wester will get a chance to restate his case for the city to move ahead with the Kerr Lake Regional Water System’s expansion to a capacity of 20 million gallons per day. The council heard a presentation on the matter at its May 9 meeting, along with a request to approve the plan before the June 15 meeting of the water system’s advisory board. Wester’s committee is due to meet Tuesday to address any lingering questions about the proposal.
* Williams is due to update the council on the saga of the Beacon Light Apartments.
* Williams and Police Chief Glen Allen will discuss a proposal for the school system to pay 5 percent more for the two school resource officers who staff Eaton-Johnson and Henderson middle schools. That raises the amount to $60,477, far below Williams’ estimate of the minimum amount the SRO program costs the city, $66,411. In a memo last Tuesday, Williams said he was “not impressed” by what Allen characterized as a good-faith effort by the school system to address the city’s financial needs. “Obviously, I’m not happy with this, but the press of time does not allow for much,” Williams wrote. “Frankly, I would be inclined to ‘pull the program’ rather than continue to get the raw deal I believe we’re getting. … If the Principals, the Teachers, etc. were better able to ‘maintain order,’ perhaps the need for the SROs on the full time basis would be mitigated.”
* The council will discuss the upcoming budget from several directions. Williams submitted an eight-page response to council member Elissa Yount’s memo of budget questions April 18. The city manager will present some possibilities for staff health insurance as he prepares to present his budget proposal in the next week. And Yount, whose mother-in-law was buried this morning, is due to respond to the city auditor’s proposal for a private meeting in July to answer her audit questions.
The council meeting will start at 7:30 p.m. at the Municipal Building on Beckford Drive.