Complaints from neighbors of nuisance houses in Saltville at Tuesday’s council meeting prompted the council to instruct the town attorney to draft an ordinance to address the problem.
Pictures of one of the houses in question – 203 Buckeye Street – were included in the council’s information packets. They show broken windows and porches, trash bags and appliances on the front porch, mattresses and furniture in the front yard and a general unkempt appearance.
Town Manager Mike Taylor said the unoccupied house is in “terrible condition” and the town has been attempting to locate the owner. Taylor said the county has the same problem in trying to locate absentee property owners.
Taxes haven’t been paid on the property for years, Taylor said, and there are other houses in a similar condition. Those listed in his report as being the most complained about are 505 Easy Street, 912 East Main, 507 and 509 Nichols Street, and 924 West Main as well as the one on Buckeye Street. He also noted a “fallen in house” beside Union Church on West Main that needed attention.
Attorney Trent Crewe said the town can put a tax lien on the property, which would have to be paid before it could be sold but to get the property cleaned up there must be a proven health hazard.
“You cannot regulate ugly,” Crewe said.
A neighbor of the house on Buckeye Street said his wife keeps their home very clean because of his health issues, but last fall there was a rat in their house and they blame it on the nuisance house. He said children had been on that property killing rats with baseball bats, that there were many dead rats there, and roach-infested furniture has been abandoned in the front yard.
“Why is not something done?” the man asked. He said he sought legal counsel to get something done, and the yard got mowed, then stuff was thrown outside and covered with a tarp.
“I just cannot live like this. Something’s got to be done. I won’t live like this,” said the man’s wife about this particular property. “I pay my taxes and I keep my place clean.”
Crewe said the neighbors must be able to prove the rat in their house came from the nuisance house. It must be determined by the local health department that the property is causing harm to neighbors before a court order would be issued to deal with the issue.
Some avenues the town might have in dealing with a nuisance property include going to court to place a tax lien for delinquent taxes, determining that the property is blighted – by state definition, without utility services – and get it destroyed or rehabilitated and bill the owner, and getting involved with a private citizen going to court over a house left open allowing for drug use or other crimes.
You can try to get the health department to declare a property a health hazard or adopt a new ordinance on blighted structures, Crewe said.
Taylor said he has the health department on speed dial when it comes to these nuisance properties when the council instructed him to call again.
Crewe was asked to draft an ordinance and he said he might have it ready for the council’s budget workshop meeting on Tuesday at 6 p.m.
In other business, Brandon Gates, manager of Food Country, came to the meeting to ask for permission to have an area approximately 30 feet by 30 feet next to the store paved in preparation for a new business interested in locating there. He said the business needs pavement for turning space and a drive-thru.
Since the property is owned by the town and next to the Salt Trail, council members said they wanted to go look at the site and have it marked off before making a decision. Gates said the pavement would take some of the parking space for those walking the trail but they would be welcome to park in the Food Country lot.
Also at the meeting, Sarah Gillespie with the Smyth County Chamber of Commerce talked about chamber programs and plans to be more involved in Saltville and Chilhowie. Programs she mentioned include ongoing small business workshops, a planned small business boot camp with a focus on Saltville and Chilhowie, looking at specific needs of the towns and county, a revolving computer lab to visit Saltville, and efforts to help support the Saltville playground with another zombie run in the fall, donating proceeds from the upcoming bike run and a golf tournament.
Council member Ron Orr challenged everyone on the board to donate to the playground and said he would match that challenge up to $1,000. He said a tab would be added to the town’s website for donations. Donations are accepted at town hall. Send checks to: Saltville Town Hall, P.O. Box 730, Saltville, VA 24370. Write “playground” in the memo line.
Janice Orr with the Museum of the Middle Appalachians spoke at the meeting about the Salt Theatre Project bringing life back to the former Salt Theatre with videos about the town. There have been discussions on and off for the past 40 years about the town’s historic Civil War battlefields, she said, and the endpoint was that those battlefields and fortifications were placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Orr showed a clip of the video presentation that is being developed and asked for the town’s financial support in establishing the theatre for the video to be shown to the public as they visit the museum.