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Benton landlord denied restraining order |
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Tuesday, 07 April 2009 |
Landlord Leroy Nalley’s request for a temporary restraining order against the city of Benton was de-nied Monday by Saline County Circuit Judge Gary Arnold.
The city condemned some of Nalley’s properties in 2007 and he sought a restraining order to prevent the city from acting on the condemnation orders.
The three properties in question at Monday’s hearing are at 1511 Cedar St., 1517 Cedar St. and 816 S. Market St.
Nalley, through his attorney, Thomas Burns, contended that the order from the city was too vague and that he was trying to “fix up” the properties.
Nalley is trying to comply with city code enforcement officers, Burns contended, and he argued that the term “otherwise abated” is ambiguous.
The term is part of the order code enforcement officers give when issuing a citation to people to fix their property to avoid condemnation, city officials said.
Dennis Mitchell, building inspector for the city of Benton, testified that the properties in question are not habitable. He said Nalley had put “Band-Aids” on the structures.
Mitchell said the structures needed to be abated, noting that they were “safe havens for rodents.” Some of the properties had mold inside and the roofing was failed, he said.
There was no evidence of electricity, he said and it was opinion that the houses were beyond repair.
Nalley has had since November 2007 to get the properties repaired, Benton police Sgt. Kevin Russell said.
Arnold’s ruling clears the pather for code enforcement to move forward with the condemnation process, Russ-ell said.
The city was represented by City Attorney Brent Hous-ton and George “Bucky” Ellis.
Nalley has contended that he didn’t believe the houses were in as bad condition as city officials believed them to be.
Houston has said that any condemnation situation, code enforcement officers don’t suddenly decide that a property needs to be condemned. He said officers work with owners long before “red-tagging” the property.
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