Opp council condemns property on Hart, Geneva
Published 12:00 am Thursday, May 10, 2012
In an effort to phase out all the eyesores in the City of Opp, the council moved to abate two properties and condemn another at its meeting this week.
Opp City Building Inspector Don Childre said that he inspected the property owned by Hinton and Kim Elmore located at the Southwest corner of the intersection of Hart Avenue and Geneva Street.
“The building or structure that constitute the improvements, has been damaged by fire, weather and time to the extent that the structural integrity of the building is less than it was prior to damage and is less than the minimum requirement established by the adopted building code of the City of Opp,” he said in a report to the council.
According to Childre’s report, no efforts have been made since the structure burned on Sept. 8, 2008, to remove or repair the remaining structure.
Childre told the council the property had been abated several times.
District 5 councilman Oren Stewart said that the property was an “eye sore” and he had received many complaints about the condition of the property.
The city declared the building “unsafe, unsanitary and otherwise dangerous to human life” and “thereby constitutes a hazard to safety and/or health by reason of inadequate maintenance, dilapidation and abandonment.”
Childre recommended the structure be condemned and demolished.
The council also voted to abate the following two properties for weeds and overgrown lots:
• A property at 314 Stanley Street that is owned by Maretha Hines, but William McClain purchased at a delinquent tax sale;
• A property at 305 Rush Street that is owned by Mary Ann Danford.