Roberts Preparing Notice Letters For Owners of Unkempt Properties

RISON - Mayor Charles Roberts told the Rison City Council Tuesday night that he is currently working on letters that will go out to the owners of unkempt properties in the city, but acknowledged that the state legislature is working on legislation now that could impact the way local governments address those properties.Roberts asked the city council members during its February meeting to compile a list of properties they feel need to be cleaned up. The mayor said cleaning up the city has moved to the top of his priority list now that the improvements to the water system are under way. Roberts said Tuesday night during the council’s regular monthly meeting that he is trying to be diligent in preparing the letters to make sure they are in alignment with an existing city ordinance approved in March 2001 that dealt with neglected properties. Under that ordinance, the city can clean up the properties and then pass those charges along to the property owner. Should the property owner fail to pay, the ordinance states that the city can then put a lien against that property.As for contacting those property owners, Roberts said the ordinance allows for letters to be delivered to the owner or leaving notices on the properties. He said the ordinance allows the city to offer to clean up or tear down any structures that are on the property.“We want to be thorough, we want to be accurate,” Roberts said in the first step of putting the letters together. He noted that he is also working with the Arkansas Municipal League, which is an association that assists cities in legal matters, on the wording of the letter.When discussing the neglected properties, the mayor mentioned that there is currently legislation making its way through the state legislature that could impact the way cities handle such properties. While he did not offer details on how that might impact cities, he did say he was monitoring the progress of that leg...