By Ryan Berry

DailyAdvocate.com

GREENVILLE — Last summer, several City of Greenville residents received notices they needed to adhere to the city’s nuisance abatement ordinances and were given an opportunity to voluntarily comply. The nuisances ranged from tall grass and weeds to junk vehicles and trash littering yards. With the approval of an ordinance to hire a part-time Code Enforcement Officer at the April 2 meeting of the council, Greenville will soon begin ramping up its enforcement efforts again this year.

According to Safety Service Director Ryan Delk, the program will be structured a little different from last year. The program was in full force last year after Greenville City Schools let out for summer break. The School Resource Officer (SRO) was assigned as the Code Enforcement Officer for a couple days each week. Delk pointed out there were issues with being able to have the SRO available if a case went to court because of the officer’s duties in the school district.

This year, the Code Enforcement Officer will be under the Greenville Planning & Zoning Office. This will be a part-time position. By ordinance, the person taking that position can only work 1,169 hours a year. Delk admitted that most of the hours would come during the summer months when the city gets the majority of its nuisance calls. The new officer will work with the city’s assistant law director on taking items to court, if needed. “We’re really excited to try to get this position rolling and get things cleaned up here as we roll into spring and summer,” said Delk. The city began advertising for the position following the council meeting.

Delk, Mayor Jeff Whitaker and Law Director Michael Rieman all agreed the city would prefer not to take a resident to court and would prefer to have voluntary compliance. Mayor Whitaker encouraged residents to be good neighbors and keep their properties clean for themselves and for their neighbors. Rieman said, “It was one of my priorities when I started to clean up our nuisance abatement, so we’ve done a lot of things that perhaps you don’t see in terms of tracking complaints and knowing where things are with our iwerks software.” He added, “As soon as you call you want to see something resolved. Unfortunately, it’s not quite that simple. Give us time, we are making progress.”

Residents that want to inform the city of a property that may be in violation of the city’s nuisance abatement ordinance should contact the Planning & Zoning office.

In other business, Delk informed the council that the city building will close on Monday, April 8 at 12:30 p.m. for the eclipse. Greenville Transit System will not be taking riders after 12:30 p.m. Transit has been working with the dialysis center to move many of the patients that are normally seen Monday to Sunday. The notice of transit being closed has been posted on the city’s Facebook page and is posted on the buses.

Delk informed the council that Jason Marion was sworn-in a sergeant with the Greenville Police Department. He also congratulated Ron Hanes, an operator at the water department for nearly 30 years, on his retirement.

The council approved the disposal of a 2018 Freightliner Vac Truck, which will be sold to the Village of Versailles for $225,000. The city is getting a new truck at a cost of over a half-million dollars. As explained in a previous council meeting and reiterated by Delk on Tuesday, the new truck will be under warranty and the old truck was not. When there is an issue with this type of equipment, the cost of repairs can be extremely high.

The Greenville City Council meets the first and third Tuesday of each month at 7:30 p.m., Council Chamber, Municipal Building.

To contact Daily Advocate Editor Ryan Berry, email [email protected].