Dilapidated structures, abandoned cars focal point of Council

By John Brice
Correspondent

The LaFayette City Council met on Monday, December 4th of 2023 at the Chambers County Farmers Federation Agricultural Center at the ALFA building in LaFayette. In attendance were Mayor Kenneth Vines, Councilman Terry G. Mangram, Councilman Toney B. Thomas and Councilman Michael C. Ellis. City Clerk Louis T. Davidson, City Attorney Joseph M. Tucker, Police Chief George Rampey, Fire & EMS Chief Jim Doody, Code Enforcement Office Kim Langley, Electric Superintendent Chris Sanders and Street, Sanitation and Cemetery Superintendent George Green were also present.
First on the agenda was a Work Session which began with an invocation led by Chief Rampey and standard procedures such as roll call. Mr. Ben Wieseman, owner of Place Associates from Hoover, presented a comprehensive strategic plan related to future growth in the city.
Wieseman’s proposal was submitted to the council and stated the need for a six to eight month “process that would engage the city leaders and the LaFayette community to discover their needs and vision for future growth in the city. The plan would illustrate aspirational projects and provide a road map for the city to implement the plans, goals and any specific projects that are identified. This process is usually led by a steering committee that will work with the project team to engage stakeholders and community members to gather information and pull the plan together.”
Following Wieseman’s presentation the work session ended and a public hearing began regarding violations of Ordinance 373 relating to unsafe structures. At issue was a number of dilapidated properties inside the city limits which included 204 2nd Avenue Southwest owned by John Ray as well as 114 6th Avenue Northwest, 118 5th Avenue Northwest, 56 5th Avenue Northwest, 62 5th Avenue Northwest and 106 6th Avenue Northwest all owned by Emprise LLC which was represented by their agent Marcus A. Johnson.
During that discussion Code Enforcement Office Langley asked Johson if he had received the notices posted on his properties in regard to them being subject to demolition due to being dilapidated. Johnson indicated that he was indeed aware of the notices and had appeared at a past council meeting to attempt to address the matter by stating his intention to bring the structures into compliance. Langley urged Johnson to contact the city directly to confirm that the structures in question were being worked on.
Attorney Tucker clarified to Johnson that these structures needed to be secured so they would not pose a hazard to the neighborhood at large. Councilman Ellis emphasized that the council would need to see improvements by their January 8th meeting and proposed tabling the matter until that date, reminding Johnson that the properties in the Mill Village area had been a major nuisance and in bad shape for quite a long time.
At that point the council adjourned the public hearing and began the regular meeting with an approval of the minutes from the previous meeting. Discussion of PFAS and insulin overpricing litigation with attorneys Shelby Yarbrough, LaRuby May and Starr Culpepper had been scheduled on the agenda, however, with none of those expected guests present that topic was skipped over.
Subsequently there was a revisiting on the Notice of Claim by Pamela Holloway regarding her laundry that had been damaged by city supplied water that was polluted. Attorney Tucker stated that there had not been any developments surrounding the facts around the claim since the last meeting that would have affected his original opinion on the matter that had been tabled. At that point the motion was passed to pay the claim in the amount of $320.
Next was the announcement of the annual Christmas Luncheon which will take place on Thursday, December 21st, 2023 12pm in the ALFA Building. Councilman Mangram moved on to the next topic by asking Code Enforcement Officer Langley in regard to derelict cars being tagged for towing having been a completed project. Langley stated that the city had removed roughly 150 and were no longer seeing many more, with only a few left which the city could tow the few remaining.
Mangram noted that the notices have been sent out, efforts had been made to contact the owners and it was imperative to go by the ordinance diligently and remarked on the need to ask Attorney Tucker if another contact would be required. Tucker advised in favor of retagging them since it had been 6 months to which Councilman Ellis inquired about how long after tagging does the city give them to get in compliance. Langley responded that one person he had spoken to swore she had cancer and would get it fixed and that was often the case with most of the people with remaining claims were suffering with health issues.
Mayor Vines moved on to the next matter at hand which was welcoming Alan Gleaton who had already been hired on as the new Wastewater Plant Superintendent and for Kevin Page to be the nominated as the new Wastewater Distribution and Collection Superintendent. With the motion approved to hire Page, the council moved to vote on the dilapidated structures discussed during the public hearing.
Attorney Tucker advised the council to vote separately on the John Ray property which they did approve the motion to tear down that property with a roll call vote. After approving the motion to table discussion on the other properties until the January 8th 2024 meeting, the meeting was adjourned.