Blitz Scheduled for Springdale Neighborhood

Area Near Razorback Greenway

Staff Photo Michael Woods • @NWAMICHAELW A house on the 800 block of Powell street in Springdale is one of the houses the city’s code enforcement department will be looking to clean up to city code during a neighborhood code enforcement blitz set for May 10 in Springdale. Code violations include trash piles in yard junk cars and tall grass. Code enforcement is now part of Community Engagement Division. The area was picked because the Razorback Greenway will run along Powell Street.
Staff Photo Michael Woods • @NWAMICHAELW A house on the 800 block of Powell street in Springdale is one of the houses the city’s code enforcement department will be looking to clean up to city code during a neighborhood code enforcement blitz set for May 10 in Springdale. Code violations include trash piles in yard junk cars and tall grass. Code enforcement is now part of Community Engagement Division. The area was picked because the Razorback Greenway will run along Powell Street.

SPRINGDALE -- A blitz will hit Springdale this week, one designed to fight the unsightly condition in one neighborhood.

The Springdale Community Engagement Division on Saturday will send all of its code enforcement officers to the neighborhood west of Springdale Municipal Airport. Building inspectors, police officers and city officials will go house to house looking for code violations, said Missha Wagoner, division director.

At A Glance

Neighborhood Blitz

The Springdale Community Engagement Division will be holding a neighborhood blitz cleanup west of Powell Street and south of Caudle Avenue. Code violations that will be covered include:

• Trash piles in yard

• Vehicles parked in yard

• Piles of limbs, bushes or leaves

• Furniture or mattresses outside of house

• Inoperable vehicles

• Tall grass and weeds

• Standing water

• Broken windows

• Damaged fencing

• Dead trees

Source: City Of Springdale

The blitz is designed to improve the looks of the neighborhood, Wagoner said.

"We're not just going to do one house where there has been a complaint," Wagoner said. "If we do a whole neighborhood, everyone can see positive results."

A smaller blitz, along Deering Road, showed results during a tour with Tina Haden, city code enforcement officer. Haden was reinspecting homes with problems that needed to be corrected.

Many of the Deering Road homes had newly mowed yards with piles of rubbish stacked along the road.

"They have called in to set up a bulky waste pickup," Haden said, checking her tablet computer. "They are OK now."

Haden uses the tablet to write out violation notices, schedule reinspections and take pictures of the violations and work done to correct the issues. If a problem is not corrected, she can use the tablet to write a citation for an appearance in court. The citation is printed on the spot, she said.

Since February, code enforcement officers have issued 19 citations to property owners and cleaned up or mowed 20 properties where local owners could not be located, Wagoner said. More than 1,000 notices of violations have been issued, she said. Citations are not issued unless the problem is not corrected, she said.

The new tablets have increased the efficiency of the department, said Ernest Cate, city attorney. His office prosecutes people cited for violations.

"Code enforcement has jumped into the 21st century," Cate said. "It's made a big difference in the number of tickets they write, and the information we have on each violation."

The engagement division was formed in February by combining code enforcement, the bulky waste pickup program and the graffiti removal program. Previously, code enforcement was part of the building department.

The change has worked well, Mayor Doug Sprouse said.

"So far, we've seen real improvement," Sprouse said. "We're helping the appearance of the city and educating people how to keep up their property."

Each of the largest cities in Northwest Arkansas handles code enforcement differently, according to officials representing those communities.

In Rogers, code enforcement is part of the Code Management Department, as are building inspection and animal services. The Bentonville Community Development Department includes code enforcement, engineering, planning and building inspections. In Fayetteville, code enforcement is part of the Development Services Department along with the Community Development Block Grant program and animal services.

Code enforcement has been a good fit as part of community engagement, Wagoner said. The department has contacted about 3,500 residents since the division was formed, she said.

One person contacted was Dennis Dablemont, owner of a rental house on Backus Avenue. The business next door, Nacho Tire Service, had been notified about some violations, including old tires stacked behind the building.

Dablemont said the code enforcement officer who called wanted to know if he had given the business permission to park vehicles in his yard and if he would support any illegally parked vehicles.

"They were encroaching on my property," Dablemont said. "The people from the city got them to move the cars and clean up their building."

Nacho Tires did not reply to phone calls seeking comment.

Another businessman said code enforcement solved a problem with a neighboring business.

Clay Roddey notified the city that vehicles at Pedroza's Auto Repair were blocking the alley used to empty the trash container at GPM International, 808 W. Emma Ave. Pedroza's, 103 N. Thompson St., is located on an alley next to the Acambaro Restaurant.

Cars were being repaired while sitting in the alley and other cars were being parked in neighboring businesses' lots, Roddey said.

"I asked them to move the vehicles and they said they didn't care if the alley was blocked," Roddey said.

After city officials looked at the situation, they took care of it without hesitation, Roddey said.

"I got a great response," Roddey said. "They posted signs that said 'No Parking in Alley' and had the alley declared a fire lane."

A person who answered the phone at Pedroza's said nobody was there at the time who could talk about the code violations and someone would call back. A return call was not received.

Pedroza's complied with everything that was asked of them, Cate said.

The blitz next week will focus on the area that will include the path of the Razorback Greenway, Wagoner said. A section of the greenway, a 36-mile trail running from Fayetteville to Bentonville, is under construction along Powell Street.

Residents of the area are being notified about the cleanup push, she said.

Correcting violations doesn't require a lot of money, she said. The area's residents will be notified of city programs that could help, such as bulky waste pickup, graffiti removal and Community Development Block Grants.

"It takes some effort," Wagoner said. "You can do a lot without spending money."

NW News on 05/05/2014

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