Sean C. Morgan
In nine months of code enforcement activity during 2001, the number of city code violations increased by 130 percent to 539; but 80 percent of all violations being handled by the city code enforcement officer were resolved.
Sweet Home Code Enforcement Officer Cindi Robeck handled 539 different properties in 2001. In addition, she handled 124 properties carried over from 2000 and three from 1999.
Robeck was off for three months following the birth of her son.
Total, 601 compliance incidents were resolved in 2001. Some properties had multiple incidents.
She wrote 767 letters in 2001, the primary tool prior to citation to get persons to clean up properties.
Robeck issued 14 citations into Sweet Home Municipal Court in 2001. Of those, 12 violations completed required work in 2001. Two remained out of compliance at the end of the year, and two persons were placed on probation. Eight persons were fined $1,245 by the Municipal Court judge.
Going into 2002, 134 properties, 20 percent, were still in non-compliance and 529 properties were brought into compliance during 2001.
In 2001, the Sweet Home Fire Department became the Sweet Home Fire and Ambulance District and stopped handling tall grass complaints. That increased the number of those complaints handled by Robeck. Plant and fence violations accounted for 18 violations in 200, six percent of all violations. In 2001, grass and shrubs accounted for 35 percent of total violations.
“I believe it’s looking better,” Robeck said overall of the City of Sweet Home, though she’s staying as busy as ever. Complaints were up, but a part of that, “I believe, was from all the tall grass.”
Some properties were recurring problems in 2001.
“It’s a lifestyle issue,” Robeck said. A car may be stored, then moved. A few months later, the property has a trash problem.
“We’ll be doing some more of the proactive (enforcement),” Robeck said. “We’ll definitely continue the complaint-driven violations too.…
“I think the word is out that I’m doing the job, that I work with people. People know we will work with them as long as it’s getting done.”
The most important thing, Robeck said, if someone is in the enforcement process is to maintain contact with her and keep her posted on what’s going on with cleanup efforts.
Robeck is planning a neighborhood walk sometime in the fall, but she has not decided which area the city will focus on this time. The City of Sweet Home has focused efforts in several different areas of town over the last four years.
On May 18, Robeck is organizing a “Down by the Riverside” project on Ames Creek in connection with SOLV. The program is an annual statewide clean-up effort. Volunteers are needed for the project, which will focus on Ames Creek downstream of Main Street and Clover Park.
To volunteer or for more information on the Down by the Riverside project or code enforcement, persons may call 367-8113.