On August 28, at 3:00 p.m., the members of the Henderson City Council, Henderson Mayor Clem Seifert, Acting City Manager Mark Warren, and City Engineer Frank Frazier took a riding tour of the southern part of Henderson.
The driving tour is a revival of a pre-meeting council event that was practiced some years back. It is not clear when the practice stopped.
Council members Bernard Alston, Garry Daeke, and Ranger Wilkerson were not present for the ride-along.
Members of the council noted the following items:
* Elissa Yount noted abandoned trailers behind the Alan Vester car dealership on Raleigh Road.
* Several members noted graffiti at the Best Buy service station at the corner of Raleigh Road and St. Matthews Street.
* It was noted that Sanford Milling on Nicholas Street removed graffiti from its buildings immediately after they were defaced.
* The graffiti damage on the warehouses and other structures of Old Epsom Road and Rose Avenue was observed by the council and city staff. Yount called it “particularly bad”.
* A house on Williams Street was seen by the tour. Council member Lynn Harper told the party that the owner claims she paid $15,000 for siding for the house and cannot sell it for that much because of a dilapidated structure to the rear.
* Yount told members that council member Garry Daeke gets complaints from citizens about trash from the convenience stores on Nicholas Street.
* A house on Chevasse Avenue with accumulated junk cars and appliances in the back yard was observed by the tour. Yount reported rats of unusual size living in the refuse. It was debated whether or not the cars in the yard were driveable.
Cars that do not run, have flat tires, have weeds growing around them, and lack proper registration tags are junked, abandoned, and nuisance vehicles under city code.
* The tour went by Quick Fix on Nicholas Street. Frequently there are large numbers of junk appliances on the lot of that establishement; however, the site was relatively free of refuse when the council tour drove by.
* Driving by Larry’s Service Center, members debated on the problem of trash on the street in front of the business.
Mayor Seifert said that “there is no rhyme or reason” to which businesses the city picks up trash for.
Harper asked Acting City Manager Mark Warren to have incoming Public Works Manager Linda Leyen find out what the rules are for picking up commercial trash when she assumes her new position.
Seifert expressed the opinion that the members currently engaged in the tour should be able to call someone at city hall and get a citation written for putting trash on the sidewalk on the spot.
* On the first block of West Young Avenue, former resident Priscilla Butler had arranged with Warren to meet the tour en route regarding a complaint about the back of a property next to her brother’s house that has gone unkempt for seven years.
Butler told the council that they “had allowed one of the finer middle class neighborhoods to become a slum”.
She informed the council members and city staff that rodents and snakes infest the back lot of the adjacent property. She claimed that the city had been unresponsive in seven years of complaints.
Seifert responded to Butler, saying that the city would react to complaints. He said that the city has gone without addressing problems in the past, but that it is trying to address problems now.
The mayor told Butler that it is hard to respond to something seven years ago, and that fresh complaints were needed.
Butler admonished the council for providing only $100,000 for code enforcement per year for the last three years. Seifert corrected her, saying that the Code Enforcement Department has only existed for the past two years.
The Code Enforcement Department was created approximately two years ago with revenue created by an additional sanitation charge.
Butler told the city’s leadership that Henderson is a city that is depressed and non-progressive.
Seifert responded that the city council sets policy, and that serving on the council is not a full-time job. He said that city government was trying to pick up where it had been lax. Seifert said that the city had made significant progress. He cited the new H. Leslie Perry Memorial Library as an example.
The mayor went on to say that code enforcement should be self-supporting financially. He said that he cannot get city staff to buy into that idea. He indicated that the city council would support ordinances allowing fines.
Seifert expressed frustration with getting those ordinances into effect.
Harper told Butler that Code Enforcement has a little less than $200,000 to work with rather than $100,000, a correction of the previous figure offered by Butler.
Butler expressed dismay at having only two code enforcement officers to take care of such a “depressed area”.
Seifert said that we [the council] get ambushed [by citizen concerns]. He said that the council depends on city staff to get jobs done. The mayor indicated that the city has had turnover.
Seifert told Butler that he understood the issue.
Butler indicated to the members of the tour that she still thought that seven years was a long time to wait for a resolution to the complaint.
* A house on Young Avenue was observed with no electricity and no running water. The house is occupied by a woman.
Seifert commented that the city should not have to do anything [about the house on Young Avenue].
* A house on McBorn Street was noted for using the front yard as storage. Of particular interest to the council was that it was storing a commode.
The tour was ended before viewing all planned areas due to time constraints and the extreme heat inside of the vehicle. A continuation of the tour was planned for Tuesday morning at 11:30 a.m.