The public’s patience with the city regarding abandoned and problem properties throughout town reached a boiling point Tuesday, June 8, during the city council’s regular meeting. Several Fayette citizens asked the council to take action, citing properties with trash, animal waste stench, and criminal activity, among others.

One man, Ed Dodson, explained that a house on Oaklawn next door to a home he owns has at least four people living in it without utilities. Trash is piling up in the yard, which the inhabitants are also using as a bathroom, he said.

“The trash is chest high in the back yard,” he explained. “There’s another person living in town that is hauling vehicles over there. What can be done about it?”

Dodson provided photos of the property in question to council members.

Southwest Ward Alderman Grafton Cook said he has grown frustrated over the matter. “I get a sense that there is a deep and growing anger here in the community about what should be bread-and-butter issues as far as we as a body are concerned.

“The council needs to take serious and immediate action on all of these things that have come before us.”

Cook said he wants the council to take whatever legal action is necessary to provide immediate remedy to these issues. “It’s almost to the extent that I don’t care how much it costs the city to get a tow truck out here and legally haul these cars out of here. I don’t care how much it costs the city in order to get these lawns mowed. I’m fearful that if this goes on for another six months or a year, or into the winter, that we’re going to have a real problem with folks here in town.”

The issue has been building tension before the council for years. Marsha Broadus attends nearly every meeting of the city council and often inquires as to what is being done with abandoned properties near her residence.

Alderman Cook said he has been concerned about the matter for some time. “Finally tonight after hearing the complaints…I’ve got the sense that this city is fed up nothing going on when it comes to basic cleanliness of our community and our seemingly inability to address and resolve these issues.”

The problems regarding abandoned buildings range from homes to downtown commercial buildings. The owner of a run-down building on North Main Street, commonly known as the old Village Place, spoke with the council on Tuesday. Jason Roe, who lives in Alaska, explained that he is in the process of restoring the building. So far he has obtained an engineering report, had the property surveyed, and has initiated an application for historic preservation tax credits.

Major work is not expected to commence until such tax credits are approved. Any work performed before the tax credits are issued will not be covered under those credits. However, he said some other work, such as stabilizing the communal wall between his and his neighbor’s building, roof demolition and reframing, could take place in the interim.

“What I get out of this project is largely aesthetic. I’ll be lucky to break even,” Roe said. “This is not a big money-making project. It’s of personal interest to me, and I intend to pursue it.”

Progress on other downtown buildings has been less significant. The city requested in February that Dan Ruether be subpoenaed to appear before the council since he refused other requests and even a hearing. 

Ruether owns nearly a block of buildings on the west side of the downtown courthouse square along Church Street. The deterioration of those buildings has been a source of consternation for years with the council. 

The city paid for two engineering reports on those buildings. In December 2020, a hearing was conducted, at which Ruether failed to appear, where the council found that some of the buildings were “dangerous.” Notices were placed on the doors to those buildings causing at least one tenant living in upstairs apartments to move out. 

Some work has been performed on the buildings, which the council considers minimal.

“I’m so tired of Dan Ruether kicking this city around like he has for seven or eight years,” Cook stated.

The city’s attorney, Nathan Nickolaus, said the legal methods of removing abandoned vehicles can be complicated. He explained the city can tow away abandoned vehicles that are in the roadways. However, abandoned vehicles on private property cannot be seized without a warrant. 

“In order to get the warrant issued, we have to go through administrative procedures,” he said.

The council at its previous meeting on May 25, charged the police force with the job of code enforcement with relation to such issues as abandoned vehicles, trashed properties, and tall grass. Nickolaus said he and City Marshal David Ford, along with Mayor Kevin Oeth, will produce written procedures so that a process will exist for legal enforcement. 

Nickolaus also explained that a statute exists for the city to sue the owners of such properties. “I think it’s worth trying in Fayette. I think we’ve got enough to make it worth doing that,’ he said.

A lawsuit, he explained, could result in a court order that would force the owner to clean up the property and handle all costs associated with such cleanup, and also gives the city the authority to enter the property and clean it up should the owner not comply.

Nickolaus also said the city, after going through the proper administrative procedures, can step in and demolish some of these smaller properties. “We can put a lien on their property, but you’ll probably never collect it. But if you’re willing to pay the cost, certainly we can knock down some of them.”

City Marshal David Ford said that a problem could occur when these cases go to court. “Our problem may be…getting the courts to side with the city. I can go out and write tickets all day long, but then it’s got to go to court and the judge has got to find them guilty.”