That old house back up for city discussion

It was the same subject with not much of a different outcome when the Clarendon City Council met last Thursday, June 23, and discussed the old Neece house at 602 Bugbee Avenue.

Owner Linda Lewis again appeared before the council to discuss work that has been done and work that is planned for the property, and aldermen again expressed little satisfaction with the progress that has been shown.

The house was facing a condemnation process in 2014 before Lewis got a grace period from the city to address code compliance issues.

Last July, she successfully avoided the condemnation process by rectifying certain dangerous conditions on the property under what was then termed Phase One of improvements to the property. Lewis is now at the end of the first year of Phase Two, which has been previously described as a three-year plan to rehabilitate the property.

Mayor Larry Hicks said the city council took no formal action on the property last week but did urge Lewis to keep the property cleaned up.

In other city news, aldermen approved a request from the Christ’s Kids Ministry for $1,000 from the city’s community programs budget line to support a summer lunch program. City Administrator David Dockery said the program feeds as many as 150 meals per day and costs about $8,000 to operate.

Aldermen also approved a budget adjustment to hire a new road grader operator for 20 hours per week for the rest of the fiscal year.

The council approved applying for a Community Development Block Grant for waste water improvements, specifically to improve lift stations and deteriorating collection pipes. City officials say, however, that there is little chance of receiving the grant because the city has not raised sewer rates and has not raised the tax rate more than the effective rate recently. Both of those factors will negatively affect the scoring of the city’s application.

The council also met in closed session to review the job performance of City Secretary Machiel Covey, and she was commended for her work when the council reconvened in open session, the mayor said.