Citizens direct concerns to Council

By Beth Christian Broschart
The Parsons Advocate

PARSONS – More than a dozen concerned residents Parsons came to Tuesday’s Council meeting to seek help for problems facing those living in the Pulp Mill Bottom section of town. Ed Phillips said he was the designated speaker for the group. He was told he would have five minutes to speak.
“The main concern is the dike,” Phillips said. “What is going to be done with the dike?”
“Lowell Moore is here to discuss the dike, so we will discuss that in a little bit,” Mayor Dorothy Judy said.
Phillips said another concern is that property in the Pulp Mill Bottom needs straightened…
“We have been working on that,” Judy said before Phillips could finish his comment. “I will give an update on that. Will you give me a little more time on that one this evening and when we get to that point I will give you an update. We have been working on that.”
Phillips asked about the cat and dog problem in the Pulp Mill Bottom.
“Now, that is the county,” Judy said. “We pay and help as much as we can, but that’s under the county’s control. The animal shelter.”
“Rats and snakes,” Phillips said.
“I don’t know about the rats. I don’t know who has control of the rats,” Judy said.
Councilwoman Jane Barb said she remembers when there was a rat problem before and the city put out a rat trap.
“We still have traps,” Parsons Administrator/Treasurer Jason Myers said.
Phillips said the group is concerned about a lack of sidewalks in the area.
“We have been trying to get that but there is not a grant available, but we are getting the roads paved,” Judy said.
“Please let me finish,” Phillips said. “I am talking about people parking on the sidewalks. There is an Asplundh truck right down the sidewalk and right up against the telephone pole. I think there is a law where you must park so many feet before an intersection.”
Judy asked Parsons City Police Chief Bill Rowe to address that issue.
“Also, where you come out of the Pulp Mill Bottom, you can’t see out around there because there is a truck always parked on Merrill Street coming out Poplar Street,” Phillips said. “You can’t see down the street.”
“We had the owner’s property surveyed and he is right up against the city property,” Judy said.
“All the way down there on Poplar Street where people park on the sidewalks, and there is a park at the end,” Phillips said. “People have to walk in the road.”
“We have been working on that, trust me,” Judy said. “It does lead to our parks and when the teams come in from out of town we know they are seeing this. We are also working on the yards. We passed the International Building Code in December. It went into effect February 1. So Bill (Rowe) has been out in the Pulp Mill Bottom.”
Residents questioned what the International Building Code is about.
“It means mowing your grass and we have a copy of it,” Judy said. “Someone was confronted Friday and he showed up here at the city – he was here cussing and screaming and hollering – we are doing all we can, but what do you do with them?”
A resident said it doesn’t matter if he was there cussing and screaming.
Rowe said he spoke with the City Judge Tuesday morning and he said one day next week, the resident would be subpoenaed by the Judge to appear in court. “We are working on that part. I need to get with Jason about the parking over there because it is 15 feet from the intersection, like the gentleman said, but it has to be marked before I can do anything with that. I was not aware of the people parking on the sidewalks but I will check that out,” Rowe said.
Judy said sidewalks are very expensive, costing as much as $250,000 for a small part of town. One resident questioned how sidewalks were erected in the other part of town.
“The grants,” Judy said.
“Can’t we get a grant?” the resident said.
“See, it used to be the residents put in 50 percent and the cities applied for grants, but it’s all on the city now and it takes a lot of money,” Judy said.
“If they can spend $500,000 of the Harman money on a splash park, why could we have not used some of that for sidewalks?” a resident asked.
“Well eventually, when we get things done we could probably use it for that,” Judy said. “I am not saying it can’t be used. It’s at the discretion of the council – not me. I don’t get to vote on it.”
“Well I think it was more important to take care of the bigger issues before we put a splash park in,” one resident said. “I am not against the splash park, but this dike worries me. This dike worries me and there is not going to be a town left if something happens to it.”
“Well, he (Lowell Moore) is here to update us on that because we did all we can do and Lowell can back us up, didn’t we Lowell?” Judy said. “We have worked and he has worked hours and hours and we were right at the point and they kept telling us we didn’t own it (the dike) and we could not understand because we had the deed for it and everything. Finally Jason went to the courthouse and spent days to find the ownership. It came back to the 85 flood – Byrd came in and said to get it done and the county took the sponsorship of it (the dike project). Once the county took the sponsorship of it, nobody can own it – well the best way to say it is the city owns the land and the county owns the project (structure).”
Judy explained that it was unclear for some time who owned the dike. “We submitted to get the money but they turned us down. Finally the county has taken the responsibility for the dike. They are starting from ground zero and it is a lot of work,” Judy said.
Phillips said regardless of who owns the dike something needs to be done.
“It made it through this last winter, but I don’t think it will make it through another winter,” Phillips said.
“We want to get it done but the money is the bottom line of everything,” Judy said.
“But that’s what I don’t understand,” Phillips said. “They have money to build a splash park over here. Can’t they put $400,000 in to help the Commission?”
Residents in the audience chimed up in agreement, some saying that the dike is more important than a splash park.
“Well that’s a whole different…one line item to another,” Judy said. “I agree. What’s the rest of your list?”
Phillips asked if something was going to be done to clean up properties.
“Well, we just answered that,” Judy said.
“You were up through there last year with a paper, writing down this one will have to be cleaned up…this one, that one – well it’s been a year and there hasn’t been anything done,” Phillips said.
“We just passed that in December so we have more things to work with,” Judy said.
Rowe agreed.
City Recorder Nick Carr said he thought the biggest concern for the Pulp Mill Bottom residents is that these people have lived in the area for years and they have seen it go from such a prominent neighborhood, through the FEMA buyouts and now parts of it are dilapidated.
“I see where they are coming from,” Carr said. “It affects their quality of life.”
“I think the whole council is aware of what’s going on,” Judy said.
“One of their biggest concerns is the junk. We have the ability to write these tickets since we had the code pass,” Carr said.
The next regular meeting of the Parsons City Council is slated for 6 p.m. May 17.