TYLERTOWN — A home cleared of being a public health hazard but again the subject of complaint by neighbors could be sold or could be torn down without substantial improvement in its condition.
The house and grounds at 517 Cleveland Ave., vacant and owned by three siblings, came back before the board of aldermen Aug. 15 on a petition by Adrian Moga and other neighbors.
“I believe the house is blighted,” Moga said. “It has a gaping hole in the roof. There are rats and snakes. ... The yard and bushes are overgrown, and if they were cut, they’d probably show the house is in worse shape than it looks now.”
Mary Ellen Gulotta, who lives next door and made the initial complaint that was dismissed, concurred in Moga’s assessment.
“It’s embarrassing,” she said. “The yard is growed up, and the house is falling down.”
Doni Cyd Pounds, one of the siblings who now owns the house, conceded that the house is in poor shape, but has been worked on some since her retirement this summer.
She said a real estate agent and renovator has looked at the house and is figuring up an offer.
“It’s for sale, yes,” Pounds said.
Public Works Director Mike Grubbs said the yard appeared to have been cut recently when he viewed it that day, and said a number of loads of limbs and yard debris had been hauled away.
Asked by hearing officer Joseph Stinson, the board attorney, if the home constituted a health or safety hazard, Grubbs said, “I can’t say that it is.”
Nevertheless, the mayor and aldermen took Pounds to task for the condition of the property.
“If I lived next door, I’d be up here mad like” Moga and Gulotta, Alderman Fred Lambert said. “It’s deplorable. I love you, but it looks bad.”
Mayor Ed Hughes said the town has the power to get rid of the house.
“We can tear it down, and maybe we ought to have done done it,” Hughes said. “That’s a bad path to go down.”
With the possibility of a sale of the property, and the offer due from the real estate agent/renovator in mid to late September, the board continued the hearing on the property to Oct. 17.
In other business, the board took bids on purchasing a garbage truck and a street sweeper under advisement.
Burroughs of Laurel submitted a low bid of $143,813 for a truck and collection body. McComb Diesel bid two different collection bodies for the same truck, with total prices of $144,314 and $151,089.
Ingram Equipment, based in Pelham, Ala., submitted a bid of $91,728 for the street sweeper.
