Higher court costs and cleaning up trashy properties in the city limits was on the table in last week’s meeting of the Smithville Board of Mayor and Alderman.

If your home is an eyesore, you might want to take steps to clean it up. At least if the city’s government has anything to do about it, as they are tiring of complaints and the lack of enforcement on the subject having broached it once before.

While there is an ordinance in place, enforcement seems to be the key sticking point.

During the meeting, Alderman Josh Miller said he contacted Sparta city officials at the City of Sparta to inquire about how they deal with property maintenance.

“This is what I was told. They don’t go out looking but they act on complaints. The building inspector does it there. He goes out and confronts the homeowner. When he confronts the homeowner, he gives them 10 days to clean their place up. If it’s not cleaned up in 10 days they are cited into court. My question was what if it’s a renter?

“They told me that they go on the tax card and they send that person (landowner) a certified letter and when they get the receipt back they have 10 days. Then if it’s not cleaned up then the homeowner is cited into court. They have very few people who ever get to court because they (violators) don’t want it to go that far. But if it (violations) continues they have the city to clean it up and they put a lien on their property. If they (Sparta) can do it, we can do it,” said Alderman Miller.

The mayor and aldermen discussed having a workshop to possibly come up with amendments to the existing property maintenance ordinance. Previously, the city has had the city building codes inspector to act as the enforcement officer, but it could choose to direct the police department to serve citations to violators in the future once a citizen complaint is made, notices have been issued by certified letter, and violators still refuse to clean up their properties.

In the meantime, City Administrator Hunter Hendrixson suggested that the city start enforcing what is already on the books.

The city believes once violators begin to receive citations and have to appear in court, they will opt to clean up their properties to avoid the fine and court costs imposed due to lack of compliance.

Approved on final reading, court costs will increase from $85 per violation to $100 per violation.