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Regular Council Meeting August 26, 2024 Page 4 Sims Norment, 606 S. Church, he spoke in support of Single Family Dwellings. With no one else speaking, Mayor Pankaj closed the public hearing. A Motion to approve this item was made by Mayor Pro -Tem Savage and seconded by Council Member Norment. Motion carried, 6 ayes — 0 nays. 14. Receive quarterly report on demolition projects. Code Enforcement Supervisor Robert Talley said this was to have been a quarterly report however, the report would cover January through August. Mr. Talley's presentation including identification of substandard structures, identifying the owner and/or lienholder, notify the owners and/or lienholder, place an orange sticker on the structure and publish the violation notice in the Paris News. He explained that once the steps were taken, Staff would present photos and commentary to the Building and Standards Commission, the Commission asks questions and if the owner or lienholder was present at the meeting they were given the opportunity to speak with the Commission, then the Commission would deliberate and place Orders upon the structure. Mr. Talley said after the Orders were issued, they would be sent to the owner and/or lienholder and filed with he County Clerk and once the allotted time required by law had passed, and if there was no appeal to District Court, a request to remove utility services was given, a final non- compliance notice was sent to the owner and/or lienholder, once the utility services were removed the structure would be placed on the demolition list and after the structure was demolished, a bill would be sent to the property owner and/or lienholder. He also said if the bill was not paid, a lien would be filed with the County Clerk against the property. Mr. Talley reported that from 2020 to the present, approximately 255 structures had been presented to BSC for demolition and of those, 162 structures had been demolished. He said currently there were 55 structures remaining on the demolition list. Mr. Talley said the City demolished 45 structures during the 2023-24 budget year and since January, were responsible for demolishing 29 structures. Council Member Norment said the cost of publishing notices was expensive and asked if that was required. Mr. Talley said it was required by State Law. Council Member Putnam asked about the cost of one demolition and Mr. Talley said on an average it was $2,500 to $3,000. Council Member Norment asked if they could take down more if that had more staff. Mr. Talley said they could. Mayor Pro -Tem Savage said with current staff, they had one crew but with more staff they could add another crew. Mr. Talley said during wet months, they were not able to take down as many houses. Mayor Pro -Tem Savage said that meant there was approximately $40,000 worth of work they were not able to get done so in the summer months, and they should be taking down more structures. Mr. Talley said he would go back and look at numbers to determine if they were leaving money on the table, because he did not think it was that much. Mayor Pro -Tem Savage said Council gets a lot of phone calls on these dilapidated structures and asked Mr. Tally if they needed more money. Mr. Talley said with more money, they could take down more structures. Mayor Pro -Tem Savage asked staff to look at other legal ways to notify property owners instead of the newspaper. Mr. Talley said staff would do that, and would reach out to other cities. Council Member Norment inquired if they could use both the abatement and demo team at the same time with no additional costs to the City, and Mr. Talley answered in the