Trustees discuss ways to deal with blighted properties
The Phillips Village Board moved July 10 to replace former trustee Jason Fry who abruptly resigned from the board and from his position as Phillips’s fire chief at a meeting in May. Phillips area native and retired attorney Dorothy Benton was selected by the four remaining board members to fill out Fry’s term at the board’s July meeting held last Wednesday night.
Chairman Jim Crawford said the board had reviewed several good candidates for the position but said Benton’s name rose to the top, noting that her legal background could be helpful in dealing with the issue of blighted properties the board had just been discussing.
When Benton, who was in the audience, was asked by Crawford if she had anything to add, she stood up and told the board she had grown up on a farm outside of Phillips and remembers the days when she could ride a horse to town. She said she had moved away as a young adult and was gone to California for many years during which time she acquired a law degree. She returned to Phillips in 1999 and built a house in the village in 2001.
“When I moved back from California I moved home,” Benton said. “Our farm is gone so this is home. This community means a lot to me.”
Having represented the Village of Giltner as its attorney for 14 years, Benton said she brings a unique set of skills to the position of trustee.
“I have the ability to read an ordinance and I can bring a lot of my experience to bear on upcoming issues,” Benton said.
Noting that with regard to recent complaints about blighted and perhaps unsafe properties in the village she had driven around the town including alleys, Benton said, “I was frankly horrified at some of what I saw!”
There was no motion or vote taken on appointing Benton to fill Fry’s unexpired term, but each of the other board members did express his approval of the appointment. After a short interval Benton read aloud her oath of office while raising her right hand. Following the filling out of the required paperwork with Village Clerk Cathie Walker, Benton took her seat at the table and participated in the remainder of the meeting.
Overgrown, cluttered lots
Prior to that action, under old business the board continued to discuss how to deal with a number of properties in the village that are overgrown with grass and weeds and where junk and vehicles are being stored outdoors. Crawford said he had a list of 11 such properties in a wide range of conditions. He said one problem with some of the properties is that they attract unwanted animals such as raccoon to make their homes in the village. Several audience members said they had frequently seen raccoon in the town limits.
Crawford said he had a plan put together to put the property owners on notice about the problem and said the village wants to utilize the board of health to inspect the properties and take pictures to document the violations. He said they would take the matter to district court if needed.
“We’ve got a section of town that’s in dire need,” Crawford said. “Some of them are bad and some are simple fixes.”
In regard to the search for a solution to the village’s ongoing water problems stemming from high levels of uranium in its well water, Crawford reported that the village is continuing to work with Giltner in a proposal to pipe treated water from Grand Island to the two communities. He also said engineers were researching the possibility of installing a treatment plant for the village utilizing either reverse osmosis or triple filtration.
“I feel we have to keep pursuing that option,” Crawford said, adding, “We have no control. It’s a Catch 22 right now; it all depends on funding.”
The trustees also discussed at the meeting possible improvements to the town’s George Jensen Memorial Park located on West Street. Crawford said the improvements might range from simply adding sidewalks and a sprinkler system to new playground equipment or a splash pad. Board members agreed that with the community’s recent growth because of the new housing development a playground was a needed amenity and some suggested another playground may need to be added on the east side of town near the new housing.
The board also moved to adopt a new village code book which is a collection of all of the town’s ordinances to date and approved the adding of houses now ready to be offered for sale in the new subdivision to the TIF that was established for the development. Benton said because she had not had a chance to review the original TIF agreement, she would abstain from the vote.