by Kathy Foster
Chipley’s City Council spent a great deal of their March 5th Workshop addressing requests that they get behind a movement to doing some serious “cleaning up” around the city.
Chipley resident Barbara James initiated the discussion when she said she would like to see the council members address enforcing “code enforcement” throughout Chipley. Noting that other cities are working harder at getting things fixed up/cleaned up and she suggested they look at Dothan, Alabama as an example of those practices.
The Code Enforcement Department was not represented at the workshop session due to sickness; however, council members agreed they wanted faster movement on cleaning up property around town.
Chipley Mayor Tracy Andrews agreed the city needs to “tighten up on the rules”.
Councilman Brett Butler said he didn’t want to punish property owners, but did want to see the city cleaned up. He added that some of the problems came with the hurricane, but others have been going on much longer.
Council members set a March 31st special meeting with Code Enforcement to address the issues.
Under the Department Heads portion of Thursday’s agenda the following was reported:
- Recreation Department – April 4th will be the opening day of the baseball program.
- Fire Department – The department is applying for a $330,000 for a new fire truck.
- Police Department – The department is preparing for extra traffic through town over Spring Break and Chief Scott Thompson said a “skimmer” was taken off a pump at a local gas station.
- Public Works Department – It was announced that local gas lines had passed inspection.
- Cemetery Department – The department is considering contracting out maintenance rather than using inmate labor.
- Water Utilities Department – No violations.
- Administration – Dan Miner reported he had met with DEP in February and is working to get the new spray field permitted. He also said the South 5th Street drainage project is almost complete, the West Boulevard improvements have gone out for bids.
The following items were placed on the agenda for the March 10th City Council meeting:
- Proclamation of the City of Chipley commemorating Theatre In Our Schools.
- Approval of Ordinance No. 960 – Amendment to Chapter 11 – Private property Standards and Abatement of Nuisances. (Keeping store fronts clean.)
- Approval of Ordinance No. 961 – Amendment to Chapter 14.5 Resource Protection Standards. (Staying in compliance with FEMA requirements.)
- Approval of Resolution No. 20-15 – Continuing to have a Rural Area of Opportunity designation.
- Approval of Engineering Services Contract Amendment – Chipley Effluent Project with Mott MacDonald.
Mayor Tracy Andrews closed out the workshop reminding everyone to follow good health practices in preventing spread of the Coronavirus.