Rocky Top ready to clean up ‘nuisance properties’
Rocky Top is cracking down on codes violations, including overgrown lawns and dilapidated homes.
After months of complaints at city council meetings from various residents, Rocky Top City Manager Michael Foster, City Recorder Kari Hancock and Building Commissioner Lisa Crumpley are working together to get the town cleaned up.
According to Crumpley, who also works for the City of Oak Ridge, Hancock and Foster are usually the ones who receive the complaints of codes violations.
They discussed possible solutions, like making a simple phone call or sending out a certified letter. The city has always had the same laws regarding nuisance properties, but for the past couple of months, they’ve been coming down harder on offenders than in the past.
“I think the steps are already in place,” Crumpley said. “Now we’re taking steps forward to try to clean up a lot of things.”
Hancock said the city has already placed a couple of liens on properties when public works employees had to come in and do the work themselves. According to Hancock, the city is modeling its new approach to codes violations after cities like Caryville. So far, more than 40 certified letters have been sent out.
Each letter costs around $6 to send.
“It’s about time,” Hancock said. “It’s a small price to pay for the greater good.”
For the most part, people have been compliant, according to Hancock. It doesn’t normally take more than a certified letter being sent, but a failure to comply can result in citations.
“If it goes as far as a citation, the police department does that,” Crumpley said. “It’s a change and it will take time.”
But letters and liens are only part of the ongoing to clean up Rocky Top. The city has applied for a $1 million grant that would make the downtown area more attractive and appealing to businesses.
They will find out at the beginning of 2019 whether they receive that grant or not. Still, roads have been paved this year, the downtown growth committee has plans in the works and the city has been named a Tree City USA. All those things combined will, hopefully, point to a thriving, cleaner Rocky Top, Tennessee.
The city follows the 2009 International Property Maintenance Codes. A copy of that is available online or can be requested at the city offices.
The efforts only apply inside the city limits, however.
For those in the county, getting a neighbor to comply with codes can be much more challenging. Just ask Strong Hollow Lane resident Lynda Harmon.
“We’ve tried to get relief through the county,” she said.
She’s been trying since 2011.
One of her neighbors was cited back then for violating codes related to sanitation — there were trash bags and loose garbage strewn around the property. According to a letter sent to the property owner by the county’s public works department, trash covered the porch and outbuildings, including clothing, household goods and other materials. The property owner was issued a citation for these things but, despite the fact that a $15 per day fine has been accumulating since 2014, nothing was done.
“We’ve got to get some relief here,” Harmon added. “This is not good for me, it’s not good for them and it’s not good for my neighbors.”
On Monday, the county informed Harmon that a contractor had been hired to clean.