The City Council and Mayor Lee Posey said they’d tired of litter and the general lack of property cleanliness of some private property in Natchitoches. They discussed littering fines and standards for the maintenance and upkeep of private property at a work session held Monday night, April 8, before the City Council meeting.
There will be a $500 per offense fine, with an option to complete an equivalent in community service (picking up trash). Posey said a fine may be the only way to get the attention of some residents/business owners. However, it was stated at the meeting that the Council will come across people who will flat out refuse to pay the money or do the work. The agreed upon answer was that these people would then be required to do jail time.
However, the key to the success of this more aggressive approach to clean up the town is enforcement. Who will enforce the fines, oversee the community service, and show sentencing will be carried out has yet to be determined, but Posey is hopeful.
“This is not going to be easy, but I’m stubborn enough to make this work,” he said.
A letter will be sent out with utility bills to all residents and business owners to inform them of this new, more aggressive stance the City is taking.
Agenda items included:
PROCLAMATIONS:
Declare May 18, 2019 As Kids To Parks Day In The City Of Natchitoches
Declare April 21 -27, 2019 As “Drive The Jefferson Highway” In The City Of Natchitoches
Declare April 2019 As Fair Housing Month In The City Of Natchitoches
PLANNING & ZONING – INTRODUCTION:
Change Zoning Classification Of Property At 536 University Parkway from B-2 Neighborhood Business District to B-3 Community and Central Business District for Magee’s Patio Cafe to extend its hours of operation to 6 am
ORDINANCES – INTRODUCTION:
Adopt The Budget For The City Of Natchitoches For The Fiscal Year June 1,
2019 Through May 31, 2020 (General Fund: $16.777,666, Proprietary Fund- Utility: $36,496,852, and Special and Capital Project Funds: $35,783,824)
Execute A Lease In Favor Of Med-Trans Corporation, Of A Portion Of Lot 1a Of The Natchitoches Regional Airport
Award The Bid For The Electric Distribution Rehabilitation For Quida And Jackson Street to Sunstream of Natchitoches in the amount of $76,398
Approve A Conveyance Of A 5.39 Acre Tract Of Land In Section 74, Township 9 North, Range 7 West, To Archie’s Towing Service, L.L.C., For The Sum And Price Of $260,000
Restate The Policy Of The City Of Natchitoches Regarding Harassment And To Amend And Reenact The Personnel Policies Manual Of The City Of Natchitoches To Amend The Section Entitled “Harassment”
Enter Into A Memorandum Of Understanding With The Natchitoches Community Alliance Foundation, Inc., Which Said Memorandum Provides For The Certification Of Sites Owned By The City Of Natchitoches Located In The Industrial Park Situated In Sections 72, 73 And 74, Township 9 North, Range 7 West
ORDINANCES – FINAL:
Award The Bid For Christmas Lighting Supplies to Stine’s of Sulphur in the amount of $21,505
RESOLUTIONS:
Resolution In Opposition Of All Proposed Legislation That Transfers The Administration And Collection Of Local Sales & Use Taxes To The Louisiana Department Of Revenue.
Resolution Authorizing The Mayor To Advertise And Accept Bids For The Natchitoches Event Center Roof Replacement Project
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
The next scheduled City Council meeting will be April 22
The offices of the City of Natchitoches will be closed Friday, April 19 for Good Friday
I like it when someone suggests having inmates do it, while it never occurs to them that if an inmate gets hurt on private property, even with the supervision of the government, the property owner can be held liable for injuries. If people paid realistic property taxes in this town and parish there would be enough money to fix this…..and roads. And don’t start your “I pay taxes” lame argument because you don’t pay enough for the type of community and parish you want. You think everyone else should work for free and materials shouldn’t cost what they do.
Well said.
I wouldn’t want a prisoner knowing where I live .
This is a problem that is made worse when people from the other side of town come to the west side of town and dump unwanted furniture, tires and animals and whatever else on vacant lots. Who is going to enforce and stop this practive? Also the fact that the city does not clean and cut it’s own property that is next to private citizens’ property, what about that? Every spring and summer we have a problem with this property being cut. We don’t know what to do about the items that magically appear overnight. We have witnessed these events. Tried complaining but nothing changes. We do try to keep our neighborhoods clean, but we’re fighting an unfair battle.
How about rather than fines you inform the owners that their property will be cleaned up with or without them, give them a deadline, then bring in the trustees. You will get the areas cleaned as you want, and I suspect more than likely many of these people cannot afford hiring anyone to do it, they are limited by transportation in removing heavy trash, they are elderly, etc. Stop looking at the surface and try to figure out why this is happening in the first place, why don’t you. And use the resources you have to hand, rather than thinking this will make more money for you from people who likely will end up in jail because they can’t pay fines.
How about those in jail/detention center do the cleaning up of these people? I’ve seen them clean up on the sides of the highways before so why not do this also!
This will never work. Trash creates trash. They won’t pay a fine, even if they get one. We live in one of the trashiest cities in the south. There are areas that look like public dumps. It comes with the territory of living in a place like this.
Gotta start somewhere. I commend the City for getting the ball rolling on cleaning up the trash in this city. If we continue to have the attitude that “This will never work” and don’t start doing something about it, it will never be cleaned up. Both littering and NOT littering are learned behaviors. If they refuse to learn to not litter, well, that is where the enforcement comes into play. Yes, it will be a tough road but doing something about it is a huge step towards success.
Okay, fine. I support cleaning up the city. Some properties are worst than others.
But, I am curious about enforcement. Right now the Police Department can’t seem to enforce laws on the books. There has been discussions on this forum about traffic violations, and some mentions of noise ordinances loosely enforced. And now what? The same PD will be expected to write tickets for littering and for old cars left in yards?
If your neighbors don’t care about their house looking bad or trashy
it brings down the value of your home and surrounding area,so there
should be some penalty for not taking care of your property.You will see
so many times through out the parish and state yards just full of debri easpecially old cars,mowers etc,hell there was one off Hwy 6 near Hagewood looked like a junk yard.