This is the type of government service intended by "promote the general welfare".
AIKEN --- There's a dump just outside Aiken's city limits, near the area called Six Points.
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Mattresses are lying on top of ripped furniture and trash is piled high on broken glass, practically mocking the "no dumping" sign standing a couple of feet away.
And it's all right in the middle of a trailer park, where pink insulation peeks out from the sides of abandoned mobile homes, windows are broken out and gangs have tagged inside and outside walls with graffiti.
"I'm actually surprised they haven't started stripping the aluminum off the sides of these trailers," said Paige Bell, who's counting the dozen or so mobile homes sitting off Vaucluse Road.
She and Bill Hartman drive around the property a few times, noting where the gang graffiti is, pointing out trailers with residents and even spotting a burned-out duplex with crime scene tape still out front.
The abandoned ones might not be standing for long. And that illegal dump? They'll demand it be cleaned up.
It's just one of hundreds of properties Aiken County's two nuisance officers will go after this year for being uninhabitable or a danger to the public health.
At least on the trip off Vaucluse Road, no one threatened them.
They've run into opposition before, from neighbors complaining about neighbors out of spite to property owners who say the county has no right to even be on their property.
"We've had some confrontations, yes ma'am," said Rick Hallman, the county's building official.
Ms. Bell said one irate property owner "threatened to cap us," and they often feel safer if sheriff's deputies accompany them.
Now, Mr. Hallman said, they are considering arming the nuisance officers, something they both agree should be done.
"I've seen and been in a lot of situations," said Mr. Hartman, a former Aiken County sheriff's deputy. "It's easy to say, 'Let's just back out of the situation if it gets to that,' but there's times when you walk up to the door and the situation is already out of control."
But they press on. Aiken County has always had laws that are supposed to keep property owners from turning their yards into makeshift junkyards or a jungle, but now it's serious about enforcing them.
The county has added even more teeth to its bite -- putting in place laws that allow it to tear down dangerous, uninhabitable buildings and to increase the fees on mobile home registration so they'll have money to get rid of the trailers if they're abandoned.
Such structures, they say, attract vagrants who set fires, drug users or dealers who cook up meth, and prostitutes who use them for business.
At their office in Kalmia Plaza, Ms. Bell and Mr. Hartman flip through photographs of homes they've cited in the past -- overgrown jungles instead of yards, occupied homes without water or electricity, even one in Graniteville where the homeowner allowed trash to accumulate waist-deep inside.
"People choose to live this way," Ms. Bell says later as she and her partner drive around a trailer park in Midland Valley they've recently cited.
The property owner has done a lot to clean up the mess, they note, but they spot some code violations that are still outstanding.
No one likes being told what to do with their own property, they say. But overgrown yards and junk piles can attract rats, snakes and roaches.
"There's no way to fight them off even if you have the cleanest house in the world," Ms. Bell said.
The ones they're after are the worst offenders, Mr. Hartman said, the ones infringing on other property owners' rights with their own negligence.
Ms. Bell said the reactions they get range from fully cooperative to being cursed at to being threatened.
Some cited property owners don't have a problem with them, she said.
Barbara and Thomas Walker didn't. They were in the middle of remodeling a home in Warrenville when someone turned them in for yard debris and other violations, according to county records.
Mrs. Walker said it was inconvenient making time to clean up the mess -- work had gotten in the way -- "but it needed to be done."
"We knew it needed to be cleaned off," she said. "We just hadn't had time to do it."
Mr. Hallman's nuisance department is complaint-driven at the moment -- meaning they don't actively go out and look for properties to cite for violations. They try not to go inside a home unless the owner gives permission or they think a vulnerable person inside is in danger, such as children in a house without water or power.
But they stay busy with complaints -- 191 in 2007. The year before, they received 163.
But if they drive by an egregious violation, said Mr. Hartman, they'll stop and take notice.
"If I see it," he said, "I gotta do it."
Reach Sandi Martin at (803) 648-1395, ext. 111, or sandi.martin@augustachronicle.com.
HOW TO COMPLAIN
See a nuisance violation? You can call the county at (803) 642-1518 or submit it via "At Your Request" on the county's Web site, www.aikencounty.net.
NUISANCES
Once violators receive a warning, they have 30 days to abate the nuisance. If they don't, they can end up in front of a magistrate judge, who can grant an extension. But if nothing is done, a violator can be fined $1,087 and put in jail for 30 days. The county then pays for the cleanup and puts a lien on the property to recoup costs.
Comments
This is the type of government service intended by "promote the general welfare".
"Richmond and Aiken counties have different methods for handling nuisance properties" but the article has nothing to do with Richmond Co. It is a targeted article towards Aiken Co. Why the comparison in the lead-in?
Because there is another story about Richmond county http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/012808/met_185245.shtml
Since the property owners arent' cleaning up, can't the county take it over, clean it up and sell the land for enough to cover the costs?
dani, obviously you don't own a piece of property and don't give a crap about your rights. The county has no right to take your property but hopefully they get the help people need to correct the problem. What's wrong with offering help you thief.
Yea... the government should just take it over. What an idiot!
I don't want their property, but if I did own it, I think I would have enough pride to keep it clean for the benefit of others. Don't you care about the neighborhood ?. Decent people deserve better than to have this under their noses.
sounds like a good job for a slacker. 2 officers 191 complaints a year.
i think all the bad trailers should be pulled out imediately, then that way it will only have little to cleanup , and it may help it look better& stay clean those tenants deserve much better or be compensated for the landlord breaching his contract with any and all tenants throughout his entirety. dont let history repeat itself.
i rather them take all the trash out and be done because, the only thing i see is that they will patch up those trailers when more than meets the eye needs to be done ,think about that!!! seriously.
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