MOULTRIE — The same nuisance property that was discussed in both December of 2023 and 2024 was a topic of discussion again at the April 1 meeting of the Colquitt County Commission. This time, however, there was a different twist to the topic.

During the commission’s work session meeting, representatives from Emerald Hill Baptist Church spoke on behalf of the homeowner of the property in question.

“This group right here … is from Emerald Hill Baptist Church,” said Randall Willis, introducing himself and the other representatives from the church. “It has come to our attention that there is a property down below Emerald Hill Church that has a lot of … I’m just gonna call it junk. I don’t know what it is”

History of the nuisance property

According to Colquitt County Attorney Lester Castellow at the 2023 meeting, a complaint for Crumb Road had gone to the magistrate court in October 2023, and all of the evidence from the homeowner and Justin Cox, the county’s chief compliance officer, was heard. The judge found that there was a nuisance and gave the homeowner 30 days to clean the nuisance up herself.

“My recollection is that, that 30 days expired on Nov. 29 (2023) 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,” he said at the time.

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.

At the 2024 meeting, when the complaint was brought up, Castellow again explained the legal steps that had been taken and the County’s deadline of 270 days to take action to clean the property up itself.

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

At that time, the commissioners voted to start the legal process over again.

Church unaware of property complaint

At last Tuesday’s meeting, Commissioner Mike Boyd immediately responded to Willis, “They’re supposed to be cleaning that up” and Willis said, “That’s what we’re here about, this house and yard. But what the problem is, is the word coming back that Emerald Hill is to blame for it.”

Boyd replied, “That’s not right” and Willis said it was in the community that the church made the complaints against the property owner.

Boyd said, “A person connected to your church said something but the person that lives next door is the one that has pursued it … a lot. Cause he’s got two kids there now. I do know that somewhere in the conversation, because it’s my district, that there is concern about the person that… One of the occupants there has had a drug problem and there was some concern about that because of the kids next door. Matt Hilton is the one that came to all the meetings. We’ve been trying to get something done about it for a while but he was the one leading the charge.”

Willis said, “Well we didn’t know cause it’s kinda come on us here in the last… It came to us by, I guess, the best way to say it is grapevine, community, different ones, that we’re to blame for this.”

Boyd asked Willis if he had spoken with Hilton and he responded that he had not. Then Willis said that before church last Sunday, he went up Crumb Road to see what was going on.

Church speaks on behalf of property owner

“As far as the yard, yes, there’s nobody going to disagree with you about what’s in the yard. But what is bearing on the minds of the church is, if the county has the authority to come in and pick, say, one individual or … where does that put the rest of us?” he said.

He then referenced the process of the county cleaning up the property and issuing a bill for the clean-up to the property owner. If she can’t pay, he said, then they would be across the street on the courthouse steps auctioning off her property.

“Now, you have a person that has, in 2024, paid their taxes, is fixing to be homeless,” Willis said.

Boyd said, “All she had to do was clean it up” and Willis agreed, “Right, exactly.”

Patsy Tucker, church representative, said the property looked like it had been cleaned-up, a little.

“She does it. She’s done it two or three times and she clutters it back up worse than it was,” said Boyd.

Tucker responded that the property owner had cleaned it up and there was still a little bit left but it looked good to her.

“She’s got to do it, she’s got to keep it clean, though. Because, if you had it next door to you and that smell was there, you’d be just like the person who lives next door,” Boyd said.

A couple of the church representatives expressed that the odor came from chicken houses and Boyd said there weren’t any chicken houses next to the property.

“The basic thing is this, we want the church left out of it,” Willis said and Boyd responded, “I think the church has tried to be left out of it.”

Church offers to help resolve issue

Willis agreed and said, “If at all, if there’s any way that we can help, as a church, maybe help convince her, ‘Look, you need to clean it up because, it’s gonna be taken from you and you’re gonna have nowhere to live.’ We haven’t been to her. So, it’s kind of a new thing to us at the church.”

He added that he was looking for a peaceable solution. He wanted to see if they could resolve the issue without the property owner being homeless.

“And I understand where y’all are from. I’m not disagreeing with you saying, ‘man we should just let everybody junk up their. … No, it’s not what I’m saying, But I do know that the end result can be very bad. If for some reason, she can’t pay the bill for it to be cleaned-up and it’s taken away from her and she’s now homeless, she’s gonna be mad,” Willis said.

He said the church didn’t want to be in that spot and didn’t want to be blamed. He said the church wanted to help to solve the issue.

I’m pretty sure that even our members would go down and help her,” he said. “I know that I’m speaking for them, they might not … But I feel like they would probably help contribute to her getting here,” Willis said.

Enforcement is county’s last resort

“All we want is we want it cleaned-up and stay cleaned-up. You got to understand that,” said Boyd and added that he thought church members needed to talk to Hilton, the neighbor.

He also said the county had an ordinance that the property owner had violated and they were enforcing it.

“Now, if you wanna go down there and clean it up, so it don’t cost very much, I don’t think anybody in this room is going to disagree with that. But the thing about is she’s gotta clean it up and keep it cleaned-up. And there’s some illegal burning and stuff goes on there and I think that some of the concern was the fact of what could be burning down there,” Boyd said. “If you want to participate, nobody has any problems with that but we’ve tried everything.”

He said Castellow knew that the county went through all the resources legally to do it.

“We have to have something that holds people’s feet to the fire,” he continued. “If we do not do it, we’re not doing the neighbors correctly and, as a church, if you’ve got the heart to do it, go down there and participate and see what you can do. You may find out what we found out … Randall, you know this … there’s some people you can’t help no matter how hard you try. No matter how hard you pray.”

Church asks for time to help resolve issue

Then, Willis asked if he could offer a suggestion and said, “Can it be backed-off for a little bit to give us a chance to see if we can talk her into…”

Boyd interrupted and said the county had 270 days to have something done by. Then, the question arose if the clean-up job for the property had been put out to bid already and if anyone had picked-up a bid packet yet.

County Clerk Melissa Lawson said she didn’t know if anyone had picked-up a bid packet yet.

She said, “There is a mandatory bid meeting on Tuesday, April 8, but the bid opening is not until Thursday, April 17.

“All right, so the church has got two weeks to do whatever you wanna do. Go down there and talk to her and we can reject bids if you have some success. … And you stay in touch with me,” said Boyd

Willis said, maybe if the church explained the situation and the consequences, the owner would clean the property up.

“Then, at that point, the church has done what it could do and y’all decide that whatever you got to do, you got to do,” he said. “We still, as a church, would rather this be resolved in a peaceable manner.”

Boyd responded, “We’d rather it be resolved than us have to take somebody’s property. We don’t wanna take property but we got a set of rules.”

“It may have some bearing on her mind when I say, ‘Our church went to the meeting on your behalf. Could you please do something?’,” Willis said.

“That’d be great,” Boyd said. “I admire you for going down there and trying, Randall.”