| By Jason C. Mattox
The City of Sardis will soon begin enforcing a tougher junk ordinance after aldermen voted to strengthen its ordinance Tuesday night.
"We really have some bad areas in town," Ward 1 Alderman Joseph "JoJo" Still said. "We need to do something about it."
And do something they did.
At the urging of City Attorney Tommy Shuler, aldermen voted to expand their ordinance to allow legal action against occupants of a property.
"The existing ordinance says you can charge the property owner," he explained. "The problem you’re running into is the owners that are living out of state."
Shuler said with the change, the city will have the ability to press charges against whoever occupies a home that is found to be in violation of the junk ordinance.
The maximum penalty set by the ordinance means a violation is a misdemeanor and violators could face as much as a $100 fine or five days in jail.
"Keep in mind we are talking about junk cars, old refrigerators and other junk or rubbish that just keeps sitting around on people’s property," Mayor Alvis "Rusty" Dye said. "We are not going to be popular, but if we want to get this town cleaned up, this is something we really need to do."
Aldermen voted 5-0 to adopt the proposed change to the ordinance. The ordinance will go into affect in 30 days.
| In other board business: |
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John Knight was granted a setback variance for his property on Percyville Street. |
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Aldermen were urged to consider banning pitbulls in the city limits by a concerned citizen. |
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Bids on two home grant projects were awarded to KBS construction at a cost of $60,750 for a pair of two-bedroom homes while a third bid was awarded to Tate Construction for a four-bedroom home at $64,800. |
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Aldermen went into executive session for a personnel matter in the police department. No action was taken. |
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