BAY MINETTE – City officials are on the lookout for rundown, dilapidated buildings and overgrown lots. They hope to eliminate both.

And they are willing to go to court, levy fines and even put folks in jail, if they have to.

“There are a number of unsightly, unsafe structures around town,” said Mayor Bob Wills. “We want to clean up the eyesores, the unsafe structures and the nuisances with weeds grown up.”

Wills met with a select committee Thursday morning get a game plan. He wants to involve employees with the police, fire and parks departments. As they ride around town, they can make note of potential trouble spots.

“But we have to be careful,” said Wills, “we don’t want to infringe on private rights.”

City attorney Scotty Lewis agreed, saying the city to go to great lengths to err on the side of caution.

“We need to make sure we provide more notice, give more time to help diffuse anything on the backend,” said Lewis. “If this thing does end up in court, that will help us. Plus, it’s the fair thing to do.

“We need to be firm, but establish a record of fairness.”

The city actually razed a house last week on the corner of Townsend and Nesbit.

“The grass was so tall, we actually found three other buildings back behind it and took them down too,” said city building official Oscar Waters.

That demolition was the result of months of work by Waters. The city hopes to streamline that process.

Under an ordinance drafted by Lewis, once a suspect property is identified, the city would notify everyone with ownership interests. That includes not only the owner but also mortgage companies. If more than 50 percent of the structure has deteriorated, it would be slated for demolition. The owners would have 45 days to make repairs or demolish the building on their own. If they do not, the city would demolish the structure and bill the property owners.

“We would record it in probate court and it would constitute a lien, behind the mortgage and taxes,” said Lewis. “They then have 30 days to pay the city. If it is more than $10,000, they can do it in installments.”

For structures not quite to the point of demolishing, the city can force the property owner to make repairs to bring the building up to code.

Weeds

When it comes to dealing with overgrown properties, the city can use local ordinances or a state statute. The local ordinance provides is a quicker process and has up to a $500 fine and up to 6 months in jail upon conviction.

“We don’t want to punish anyone unduly, but we have a lot of absentee owners who don’t give a rip (about the appearance of Bay Minette),” said Wills. “We are trying to clean up the city.”

If the weeds are not kept in check, the final result is more likely to be monetary and penal. According to Lewis, the nuisance grass ordinance starts with notifying the owner and ends with the city cutting the grass and sending the cost report to the revenue commission. They in turn set an assessment on the property.

“Shazam. Then it’s on their tax bill,” said Wills.

“It lets folks know we are serious about cleaning up,” said Lewis.

Wills said he plans to let the committee consider the draft ordinance “for a couple of weeks” before presenting the document to the city council.

“We want to get this right the first time and go the extra mile to let the property owners remedy the problems by themselves,” said Wills.