Nuisance cleanup easier in Scott City

Scott City will now have more authority to clean up nuisance violations in the city limits more quickly.

Monday night the city council voted 7-0 to pass an ordinance expediting the process of cleaning up nuisances. Under the old rules the city had to wait 60 days before it could take the initiative to clean up a nuisance like high grass with city labor or prisoner labor.

Now the city only has to wait seven days to clean up the nuisance.

"The problem was that we were getting people waiting until the very last day of the notice period to abate the nuisance, as we were having to wait that amount of time before we could abate it," Mayor Tim Porch said before Monday night's council meeting.

That would mean yards could sometimes go a whole summer before they get mowed, Porch said.

Now that process should speed up significantly. The city will still bill violators for the labor cost incurred in cleanup, using a lien on the property if needed.

The ordinance is one of several Scott City has passed in recent years to crack down on nuisances, including tightening the definition of a nuisance and creating new definitions and penalties against builders who leave buildings unfinished.

msanders@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182