City focuses on code enforcement issues

It’s a never-ending battle.

To help address code enforcement issues — whether related to an excess of junk or high grass and weeds on a property or substandard structures that can house vagrants or vermin — the city of Gatesville employs two code enforcement officers. Their jobs are different, but sometimes overlap.

Kory Walters works for the Gatesville Police Department as a code enforcement officer. and Robert Featherston is employed by the city to focus on bringing substandard structures up to code.

Although it can be an overwhelming task, at times, Gatesville's code enforcement officers are making headway into helping clean up the community.

"We have two overlapping situations — code enforcement and substandard structures," city manager Bill Parry recently told the Gatesville City Council. He said although Gatesville PD code enforcement officer Kory Walters and inspector Robert Featherston work independently, they sometimes do collaborate on efforts to help improve the community.

"We have five zones in the city for code enforcement, and you can report a code violation on the city's website," Parry said. "Year to date (as of Sept. 27), we have responded to more than 600 code enforcement issues, and about 67% of the people (notified for code violations) have addressed the issues.

"Our goal is compliance. We don't want to be in a situation where we take a bulldozer down the street tearing down every house."

From 2017-2022, the Gatesville City Council had budgeted $15,000 to address substandard structures "which enabled us to do three structures a year," Parry said. "It's been a successful program. You (the Council) budgeted twice as much ($30,000) for the 2023 fiscal year."

Gatesville Police Chief Nathan Gohlke said it is good for the Council "to have an opportunity to see what we deal with on a regular basis. You see how complicated things get and how slow things can be."

Walters said the majority of what he deals with is "junk, junk vehicles and trash.”

"We try to work each zone on different days of the week," Gohlke said. "Sometimes we get bogged down with follow-up. We either visit with the person (receiving a complaint) in person or send a notice in the mail. The object is not to issue a citation if we don't have to, but some property owners refuse to work with us."

Mayor Gary Chumley asked if the majority of property owners who refuse to comply are from out of town.

"It's a mix," Gohlke said. "It's very time consuming and tedious. There's a lot of paperwork and it can be hard to track people down. It's much easier when we have the property owner's name, address and phone number.

"A lot of structures are vacant. For those that are occupied, we hold both the property owner and the tenant responsible. We try to work with them. They get 10 days (to correct a problem) and then they get a citation (if action isn't taken). After that, we can get a court order to clean up the property.

"We can file a lien against the property, and sometimes it can take several months. Other times, people take care of issues right then and there."

Walters said he receives more phone calls complaining about code violations than emails, and when he receives a complaint, "I go check those out. I give at least 10 days before follow-up. I try to work with people if they put forth the effort.

"Out of town people are the hardest to deal with. We get information from CAD (Coryell County Appraisal District) but it's not always up to date or correct."

Parry said some of the bigger issues take time to resolve.

"Some of those places are pretty bad and they won't get them cleaned up in a day. Some are elderly and need help.

Mayor Pro Tem Meredith Rainer asked if there is any way people — especially older people — can get help.

"Yes, there are churches and organizations that have service projects," Gohlke said. "They might not be savvy with a hammer and nails but they can certainly do clean-up."

Parry said the amount of those stepping up to help with clean-up efforts has diminished.

"It seems volunteer spirit has gone down significantly," he said. "We would love to see churches ask what they can do to help. We had soldiers volunteering from North Fort Hood and some people told them they didn't want them on their property and didn't want their help."

Councilwoman Barbara Burrow asked if community service could be provided for those who have charges against them in municipal court.

"Yes," Parry said. "The problem becomes you've got to have someone to supervise them."

Featherston, who specializes in issues involving substandard structures, said there is a ranking sheet, and that "90% of houses overall you could write up for something."

He works to focus on the bigger issues.

"We have 67 houses on a list and a point system with a high of 150 points and a low of 16," Featherston said. "I look at things you can see from the road. Very seldom do we get an opportunity to go into a house for an inspection."

Featherston said while he appreciates the Council devoting $30,000 toward addressing substandard structures, prices for services to resolve the issues have gone up, including trash removal from structures that have been condemned, which can cost several thousand dollars.

It can cost an average of $10,000 per house for the city to take action against substandard structures.

"It's a $700,000 problem, we've got to be prepared to eat the cost," Parry said. "That's at least $10,000 for 67 properties."

The top five on the list belong to one person "who has a habit of not complying," Parry said.

"Just understand that code enforcement costs money," Gohlke said.

Burrow asked if more code enforcement staff are needed.

"It would be nice to have them work under one roof," Gohlke said. "That would help with communication. Additional staffing would also be an issue. It is a slow process. If you want to speed things up, you have to have more people."