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County board listens to zoning rights issues…again
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By Charlie Warner
Argus News Editor
The Houston County Board room was fill to capacity again Jan. 12 as commissioners reviewed a zoning issue that involved Melvin Davy of Brownsville Township. Two weeks earlier the county board spent more than an hour listening to testimony during a public hearing concerning a proposed interim use permit before they decided not to approve the additional zoning regulations.
The same group of residents who had paid the county board a visit at the Dec. 29, 2009 meeting was on hand for the Jan. 12 meeting supporting Davy.
Davy explained he had built a woodworking shop with a bathroom in 1982 and converted it into an apartment for his mother in 1984. He claimed back then the county didn’t have any stipulations governing this type of living arrangement.
When Davy’s mother was moved to a nursing home he decided to rent it out. He received a letter from the County Zoning Office informing him the apartment was now out of compliance. He added that Zoning Officer Bob Scanlan warned him that if he didn’t bring the building into compliance (get rid of the renter) he would be fined $75 per day until he did so.
“I was told this was grandfathered in,” Davy told the board. “You can’t un-grandfather something can you?”
Scanlan said he learned of the change in the use of the building when Davy requested an additional address marker for the new tenant. When he contacted Davy, he learned Davy’s mother no longer lived in the apartment and that Davy planned to rent the apartment out. He sent several letters informing the Davys their building was out of compliance.
“My hands are tied. I have to do my job,” Scanlan explained. “I contacted the Davys and told them they couldn’t use the building as a rental unit.”
Davy and other members of the audience contended that the county was taking away Davy’s right to use his property the way he saw fit.
“At what point do we look at what we can do to help the taxpayers with their income instead of placing more regulations on us that takes away our incomes?” Davy asked. “I have spent a lot of money fixing up this rental property. The county is receiving more property taxes because of the improvements.”
Commissioner Dave Corcoran told Davy he needed to take the case to the County Board of Appeals. “There’s nothing we can do about this until the Board of Appeals hears it,” he said.
Scanlan said he tried to tell Davy that. “I told him we could set this up in my office.,” Scanlan said.
“I want to work with the county to get this resolved. Hopefully we can get this straightened out. But if we can’t get it straightened out with the Board of Appeals, litigation will follow and that’s just going to cost everyone more money.”
Davy was told if he makes an official application to have his case heard by the Board of Appeals, he won’t be facing the $75 per day fine, which was to begin Jan. 19.
In other board action
Workforce presentation
Workforce Development Executive Director Randy Johnson and Dallas Grotten who manages the Caledonia and Preston Workforce offices, made a 30-minute presentation on the various programs and services they offer Houston County residents.
Workforce Development has been a non-profit organization that operates in a 10-county area. They currently have three employees staffing the Caledonia office. They served 318 Houston County clients in 2009, the majority were displaced workers who were impacted by the recession.
Workforce Development de-pends on state and federal funding to keep it in operation. According to Grotten, a federal grant for dislocated workers will run out in about 18 months. If additional funding can’t be found, the office in Caledonia may have to close.
Houston County elected not to contribute to Workforce Development in 2010. The county had included $130,000 in its 2009 budget for the program, but felt with all the cuts in state aid, the county will attempt to handle these needs in house through the Human Services Department.
In-house collections
The board approved a motion to begin having the county’s Human Services Department serve as the collection agency for the Sheriff’s Department instead of an outside agency that has been handling this for a number of years.
The county was paying the outside agency 35 percent on everything that was collected on past due accounts. The county will instead pay Human Services 33 percent.
Jean Becker, who has been handling most of the collection work for Human Services, will be the main person responsible, while Linda Bahr will serve as her back-up.
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