By: Lydia Crawley
The Parsons Advocate
The City of Parsons Council met in regular session March 4th. As part of their agenda, City Manager Mike Simmons and City of Parsons Police Chief Kevin Keplinger gave their reports to the Council. Discussed were issues pertaining to properties in the City. Simmons report stated that he has received an influx of calls about properties in Pulp Mill Bottom and Keplinger reported that he has been issuing a “frustrating” amount of citations for trash in the City.
Simmons stated in his report that he has received a number of complaints from citizens in Pulp Mill Bottom about properties in less than optimal condition. “I’ve had a large influx of citizens come to me with complaints with regards to junky properties in Pulp Mill Bottom,” Simmons said.
The calls, according to Simmons, are about two particular properties. “Two of them in particular,” Simmons said. “One of them may or may not get eliminated this year, but the other one, it definitely has some ongoing problems.”
Councilman Tim Turner said he has seen worse properties in Pulp Mill Bottom than what has been reported to the City. “I’ve seen junkier places than his down in Pulp Mill Bottom,” Turner said.
City of Parsons Police Chief Kevin Keplinger said the property is not high priority for his department. “That’s pretty low on my priority list, that particular property,” Keplinger said.
Councilman Seth Rosenau said he felt that the property owner had already been notified and that it was his property to do with as he would. “I’m with them, it is his property,” Rosenau said. “We already put posts up.”
Keplinger said that personality clashes could be to blame in the area for the reports. “There’s a bit of a, I won’t say vendetta, but bad blood, between a few people in that particular (area),” Keplinger said.
Keplinger in his report said that he felt trash was a larger issue in the City. Keplinger said that if homeowners have been notified and had dumpsters supplied, tbere would be citations issued. “I am frustrated with some of the trash that is going on,” Keplinger said. “I have come to the decision that if we have talked to you, if we have brought dumpsters out for you, that we have done our due diligence and we have written citations recently for trash on porches, trash around houses.”
Keplinger said that the City has supplied free dumpsters to some residents to assist in cleanups in the past to have the properties overrun with trash again. “Its not something I take lightly,” Keplinger said. “I don’t like to reach into someone’s pocket for those types of things. But again, if we have talked to you, if we have sent letters, we have brought again, free dumpsters in some cases to help people out and they still continue to pile their driveway, their front porch, their side porch, their neighbor’s yard. We’ve already started to write citations for it.”
Keplinger said he is working with the City’s Code Enforcement Officer and is in daily communication with him on the subject and hopes to have a turnaround soon. “Hopefully by Spring proper we will have gotten some people’s attention,” Keplinger said.
Keplinger said he believes in people’s property autonomy, but feels that when it impacts the property of others, that is when the City must act. “Its not something I do lightly,” Keplinger said. “Again, people’s property is their property. I believe it, but when it affects other people’s properties, that’s when we have to start drawing a line and when we’ve tried.”
Keplinger said he struggles to figure out where all the trash is coming from. “We’ll go out and find 15, 20 trash bags on a front porch or a side port or in a side yard, bags that are split, bags that garbage is coming out of. I will assume that they have trash pickup,” Keplinger said. “I don’t know where some of this trash come from to be honest with you. I don’t know how you fill up five bags and fifteen more and just leave it sit in the carport.”
Council Member Melissa Jones said that the City has to consider the health issues. “Its the health hazard issue,” Jones said.
Keplinger said the City’s Police are taking a proactive stance to deal with the trash issue. “We are taking much more proactive, much more aggressive steps with that,” Keplinger said.
