MOULTRIE – In what seems like a never-ending saga, a nuisance property issue that has become a reoccurring topic of discussion for the county commission drew almost all parties involved to the April 15 commission meeting.

Parties in attendance

Karen and Teri Durden, the owners of the property on Crumb Road, according to qPublic.net, made their first appearance at a county commission meeting to speak about the property.

Also in attendance were representatives from Emerald Hill Baptist Church and Matthew Hilton, a neighbor that made the initial complaint to the county commission in December 2023.

During the previous meeting, April 1, members of Emerald Hill Baptist Church addressed the commissioners to let them know that, as a neighbor to the nuisance property in question, the church had no issue with the property owners.

Church member Randall Willis said the church would probably be willing to help the owners clean up the property. As it stands now, the County has put out a bid request for the property to be cleaned. The deadline to submit a bid was April 17.

According to the county’s nuisance abatement ordinance, once a magistrate judge declares a property a “nuisance,” the property owner has a certain amount of time, which the judge mandates, to clean-up the property. If that does not happen, the county has 270 days to take action, which would be to hire someone to clean-up the property. Then, the cost of the work will be a lien levied against the property.

State of nuisance property

Church member Patsy Tucker said that she went out and did some investigation in the area and could not smell anything coming from the Durdens’ property.

Hilton, who lives next to the property, told the commission, at the 2023 meeting, that it was like a “small landfill.” At the same meeting, Commissioner Mike Boyd, who had been out to the property, said the odor coming from the property was equivalent to the county’s landfill.

Tucker attributed any odor in the area to chicken houses that she saw behind the church. Boyd wanted to know when Tucker had been out to the property and she replied it had been the previous Sunday.

“They cleaned up the yard and I have not smelled anything from their house or anything like a dump,” Tucker said.

“I was hoping it would be because I want the church to succeed in this, you know,” Boyd said to Willis.

Then, he asked if the church members had met Hilton, motioning to him, and introductions were made. Willis told Hilton that he had spoken with him on the phone.

Next, Tucker said, “But any other thing that she’s done…”

Karen Durden interrupted, “Has not been acknowledged. Well, they don’t acknowledge what we get done. They only acknowledge what’s not done.”

Discussion about Crumb Road

Then, there was overlapping discussion between Tucker, Hilton and Durden about Crumb Road and whether it should be called a road or not because it dead-ended at private property.

Commission Chairman Denver Braswell interrupted, “Hang on just a second, please. We’re going to try to keep it one at a time. If y’all will, we’ll take turns speaking. When you get done, I’ll ask the next person to speak.”

He asked Durden to speak and she said, if it was a public road, it shouldn’t be blocked off at night with a gate because someone that didn’t know it was blocked off could have an accident.

Hilton explained that the road dead-ended at his and another property-owner’s land. He said they were the only one’s that had land past the dead-end.

After more discussion about it, Braswell asked County Administrator Chas Cannon if he could see how much of the road was on the digest.

“And we’ll figure out exactly where the road goes. That’s an easy thing to figure out,” Braswell added.

Nuisance abatement steps taken

Boyd brought the discussion back to the nuisance property, “This has been going on since 2023. I think the first time Matt contacted me was probably April/May in 2023. … And we’ve been going through this process.”

He told Durden that the county had taken them to magistrate court and the judge ruled in the county’s favor.

“We dropped it, we didn’t follow-up. You cleaned up a little bit. Never did clean-up completely,” he said. “So this has been going on for two years.”

Boyd also referenced that the commission had voted on pursuing enforcing the ordinance but it didn’t pass the first time, in December 2023.  In December, 2024, the motion was put to a vote again and it passed.

“I hope that this church can help you. I’m fully behind it,” he said and added that the property is in his district.

He told Teri Durden he had caught her hauling stuff to the property when he was on the way to his farm.

“If you succeed at it, I’m your biggest cheerleader,” Boyd told Willis. “I think we’ll give you a chance. I think I can get the board to agree to that.”

He confirmed with Cannon that a bid had been put out to clean-up the property. Next, he confirmed the date the bids needed to be submitted by. He also asked how long the bids were good for and Cannon responded probably 30 days but they could ask the vendors for longer.

Boyd said, “Could we ask the vendors to go to 45 days? That’ll give us to June 1 … That way, we get to watch and see what the progress is.”

Property owners weigh-in

Teri Durden said, indicating a photo of her property that was showing on the display monitors in the room, “My property … that’s an old photo … all that stuff is gone. And I was in a horrific wreck in September and I had a broke ankle.”

“I had a heart attack,” Karen Durden chimed in.

“And she had a heart attack. I’m doing the best I can but I will get my property cleaned-up … And nobody’s going to be bringin’ no more junk to my yard,” Teri Durden said. “But while I was in the hospital having surgery and all, somebody was dumping stuff on my yard and it wasn’t me.”

She also told Boyd that she wasn’t hauling in stuff to her property, when he saw her. She was helping a friend move a bedroom suit, she said.

Commission’s steps moving forward

Cannon said, to recap the discussion, “We’ve got bids due on April 17 at 10 a.m. That’s kind of our status, our posture.”

He said they would look at the bids and ask the vendors if they could give them a 45-day hold on prices.

“At the next meeting, on May 6, we’ll let y’all know what kind of dollar amount we’re talkin’ about to go in there and clean-up the property. … And, then, we can make the decision on how we let it lie until June 1, or we can accept the bids and move forward on that,” he said.

Willis asked if he could get the information on what work needed to be done to clean-up the property so the church would know what needs to be done.

Cannon told him that the bid packet was online. However, if he stopped by the office, he would give him a copy, which would have the scope of work.

Explanation to property owners

At that moment, Commissioner Barbara Jelks spoke up to say, motioning to the Durdens, who were sitting behind her, “They want to know what are we getting a bid on.”

“Basically, cleaning-up your lot,” Cannon responded.

Karen Durden asked, “Cleaning up my lot? That’s what we gotta pay to have somebody clean it?”

“Well, the county will pay to do it. The process will be the county will pay to go in there and clean it up …”

Karen Durden interrupted, “But if it’s already cleaned-up, they can’t.”

Cannon said, that’s correct that was a decision the board would make. Durden asked if it would be based on the photo on the monitor or would somebody come to see the property.

“Basically, they’re going to remove anything that’s not titled in your name. So any junk that’s sitting in the yard or anything that’s not titled or has insurance on it, it’s gonna go,” Cannon said. “That’s kind of the scope of work. The commissioners will have to make that decision. May or may not do it. We’ll see what happens when we get there. From my standpoint, that’s what we’re moving towards.”