MOULTRIE — Last Tuesday, the County Commission debated actions to address the same nuisance property complaint that was made a year ago. Unlike the previous discussion, this one ended with a vote to clean up the property.

In December of last year, Colquitt County resident Matthew Hilton appealed to the commission to do something about a nuisance property on Crumb Road, which he described as a “small landfill.”

At the time, the commissioners had discussed the appeal in length.

Issue discussed in December 2023

During the meeting, County Attorney Lester Castellow told the commission that the complaint for Crumb Road had gone to the magistrate court. At that time, the judge heard all of the evidence from the homeowner and Justin Cox, chief compliance officer. He found that there was a nuisance and gave the homeowner 30 days to clean the nuisance property up herself. 

“My recollection is that, that 30 days expired on November 29 and, since it has expired, now the county has the power to go in and clean it up at county expense but we’ve got a deadline that seems like it’s 270 days,” Castellow said at that meeting.

Then, he said, if the property owner did not clean it up, the next step would be that the County has the right to pursue a lien against the property for whatever the cost was to clean it up.

During the meeting, Commission Chair Denver Braswell called for a vote on a motion to clean-up the property and it failed for lack of four “yes” votes. Commissioner Barbara Jelks was absent.

Issue arises again in December 2024

At the Dec. 3 meeting, Commissioner Mike Boyd brought up the property on Crumb Road again because residents had called to tell him that the property owner was burning things in her yard. He again referenced the ordinance the commissioners had put into place and asked that they act on it. He made a motion, which Commissioner Marc DeMott seconded.

“We got down there, supposedly had it cleaned-up. She’s hauled more stuff down there than she had to start with,” Boyd said. “This place has been nothing but a problem for a while. We’ve got the ability to clean it up and I’d like for us to clean it up.”

Braswell asked if the burning fell under the purview of the Department of Natural Resources and Boyd responded that he thought that it was the County’s job, too, if it was a hazard because they were burning things that they shouldn’t be burning.

County Administrator Chas Cannon asked Castellow to remind them of the process that needed to be take place to pursue cleaning up the property and he did.

“That was an ordinance that we passed a year or two ago and it’s based on a state law,” he said.

“Well, I personally think that we need to come up with something to encourage people to clean up their property,” Commissioner Jelks said. “When you get beyond downtown and select developments, you got a mess.”

Commission discusses property clean-up

Cannon said that he had gone out to see the property owner to ask her if she would, possibly, sell the property and she said, “No.” He also said that they had put her in jail twice.

Commissioner Paul Nagy said, “Correct me if I’m wrong. Did not a judge decide that this was, in fact, a nuisance property?”

They confirmed that it was and also the fact that the property owner had been put in jail for it.

There was a discussion about the liability to the County if they damaged something on the property while cleaning it up. Castellow said the liability would lie with the independent contractor they hired to do the clean-up.

At that point, Commissioner Johnny Hardin asked a question, “If we go over there and clean this up and then put a lien to the amount of how much we spend. The very next day or the following week, she starts bringing this stuff back in, what’s to stop it? We could be back in the same position.”

Commissioners express concerns

Boyd expressed his concern that if they didn’t take legal recourse, people would say the County wasn’t doing anything about it.

Braswell was concerned about how much it would cost to clean up the property on Crumb Road and he doubted that the homeowner would pay the lien and the County would take a property that was worth nothing. Then they would have to clean-up other properties in the county.

“We’re gonna end-up a million dollars deep holding a bunch of nothing properties,” he said. “I think that’s a rabbit hole that we could go broke in.”

Castellow said it would need to become a budgetary decision as to how much the commissioners were willing to set aside to clean up properties.

Braswell said it would come down to telling someone that the County can clean-up their neighbor’s small mess but they couldn’t clean up another neighbor’s huge mess because the County couldn’t afford it.

Jelks said they should do the clean-ups in the order that the complaints came in and this would be the first one to do.

Boyd said that it was the County’s job to put its foot down and the residents that pay their taxes on time, every time, deserve some help and that’s why they came to the commission.

County attorney discusses legal steps taken

Commissioner DeMott asked Castellow about the process of putting the lien on the property.

“Once we lien the property, then we would get the sheriff to levy on it,” he responded.

Then, he told them again about the legal steps that had already been taken regarding the property on Crumb Road, which had started in October of 2023. A magistrate court had determined it to be a nuisance and ordered the property owner to clean it up within 30 days. The County had 270 days to clean the property up if the property owner did not clean it up within 30 days.

“And that 270 days has expired, so you’d have to start it over again,” he added.

Braswell voiced his concern that the County would become judge and jury over everybody that wants to come in and complain about their neighbor’s property.

Castellow said the magistrate would have to make the determination whether a property was a nuisance not the County.

“But we’re the ones that file the complaint,” replied Braswell.

Castellow said it was the compliance office that would decide to go forward with a complaint.

Commission discusses County’s clean-up costs

Cox, the compliance officer, said he didn’t have the budget money to clean-up and file the lien and added, “I think that’s what it comes down to. … If that’s the direction you want to go.”

He added that if the commission wanted to move forward, he would put the property owner back in front of the magistrate judge and try to secure another order. He also asked to what extent would they want the property cleaned up.

“So, I want some guidance from y’all. When I do my job, I want somebody to have backed me up on it,” he said.

Castellow told Cox to include what he would clean up in the evidence to the magistrate judge.

The commission discussed further about how much it would cost to clean up the property and if the County would be out money.

Commission discusses suspected mental health issue

Then, commissioners discussed the property owner’s suspected mental state. Jelks asked if there was any way that they could get a mental health professional to visit the property owner. This led to discussion on the co-responder program and Georgia Pines.

DeMott asked Boyd if he would be willing to table the motion until the next meeting, so that the mental health route could be tried.

Boyd said that they could go ahead and bring in a mental health professional but wanted to proceed with voting on the motion to clean-up. He said they could add to the motion a condition that a mental health professional goes out to see the property owner first.

Hardin said that if the mental health assistance route worked out that was great but if not, they were still voting to take someone’s property that they already suspected had a mental health issue.

“We’re going to vote to take away, somebody that’s got an issue, everything they’ve got because they’ve got problems. … But we’re going to sit here and vote to take away everything they got. I can’t support that,” he said.

Commissioners vote on clean-up motion

Boyd said that the neighbors who live next to the property deserved something, too. It was so bad that the neighbors could smell it because it smelled like a dump both Boyd and Nagy voiced.

DeMott said that, like Hardin, he didn’t want to take anybody’s property.

According to Castellow, the commissioners could choose not to enforce the motion, if they needed to. They didn’t have to vote to rescind it if the situation changed.

The original motion, which was to proceed with the process of getting the property cleaned-up and enforcing the ordinance if the property owner didn’t comply, was put to a vote. It passed 4-2.