New Code Enforcement, tire pile
Olney Police Officer Joe Logan will move fulltime into code enforcement to speed up the City’s attempts to clean up code violations and tear down condemned structures, Police Chief Dan Birbeck told the City Council at its March 13 meeting.
Officer Logan’s new duties are part of a reorganization of the code enforcement department, after the City’s plan to pay the Texas Communities Group to help staff the code enforcement department did not work out.
We had a TCG contract where we had tried to hire people to come down but they haven’t delivered. We can use that money better,” Chief Birbeck said.
Officer Logan will “focus specifically on clean up projects, code violations and start trying to bring the way the city looks up to what it should be. I think if we move this officer into a full-time code enforcement role we can get back on the track again that we had started with the momentum of tearing down the dilapidated proper- ties and getting those cleaned up.”
Officer Logan will organize groups of volunteers through community organizations and church groups to help people clean up their properties during the citywide clean-up this year, Chief Birbeck said. “We are going to bring the city up to where it should be.”
Code Enforcement would begin moving aggressively to tear down condemned buildings and clean up trash citywide, he said.
The Council asked Chief Birbeck to begin ticketing the new owner of the abandoned gas station at 301 E. Main Street to clean up the piles of discarded tires. The City was within weeks of taking possession of the property and removing the tires when a Texas-based holding company purchased it at a county foreclosure sale. The company, GFF Holdings LLC, agreed to pay $23,000 in back taxes and to clean up the tires and remove underground gas tanks as part of the purchase agreement, city officials said after the Jan. 3 sale.
“Why would we not be ticketing them daily?” Councilmember Harrison Wellman said. “I want the bill to be $50,000 at the end and say ‘Clean it up and we’ll rescind it.’ Seriously, we cannot do this for six months and wait another two years to take action.”
City Administrator Arpegea Pagsuberon said enforcement on the property is “in limbo” because the previous owners have a six-month window to redeem the property.
“We’ll make sure we start taking action immediately,” Chief Birbeck said.
The Cook Legal Group, which is listed as the registered agent for GFF Holdings, has not responded to requests for comment about the sale or the buyer’s plan for cleaning up or rehabilitating the property.
The Council voted last year to take ownership of the property so as not to lose a $41,000 state grant the city won to remove about 10 trailers worth of passenger and commercial vehicle tires. After confirming that the new buyer understood the liabilities associated with its purchase of the gas station, Mrs. Pagsuberon convinced the Nortex Regional Planning Commission to allow Olney to use the grant to purchase a tire cutter. The City is waiting for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to issue a permit for the tire cutter to be located at the city’s Convenience Station, she told the Council.