Palestine Council agrees to remove disputed camper from service road

Members of the Palestine City Council this week continued discussing the removal of a camper located near the service road that has been a common topic at recent council meetings.

Palestine Mayor Billy Shafer told the council that due to a conversation during the previous council meeting, the city may need to issue citations to the owner of the camper.

"Where does the city stand and what are we to do as we are over the deadline for the gentleman's trailer on the service road?” asked Shafer. "The trailer is still sitting as it was at our last meeting. We passed the resolution and it was posted. There was some conversation at the last meeting that after the deadline expired if we would be issuing him a citation or not. What can we legally do at this time?"

Palestine City Attorney Hoshall Hodges told the council that while they could have been issuing citations since day one, if there is anything with the property that has substantial value, it must be sold at public auction.

"You could have been issuing him a citation since he put the trailer on the property and violated the ordinance," said Hodges. "Now, according to the ordinance in place, after 30 days of posting, the building causing the nuisance will be torn down and removed by the building inspector. I will say that if there is anything that you tear down or remove that you think you could sell or make money off of it, then you are supposed to try and sell it at a public auction. We can put a lien on the property and bill him for the cost of moving it."

"So we can go and pull it off of that lot?” asked councilman Derrick Boileau.

"Yes," said Hodges. According to Boileau, the amount of fines over time could potentially amount to a felony charge for the property owner.

"That's what I needed to hear," said Boileau. "I want to send him a fine for every day that it has set up there since he put it on there. I want him fined because it is going to eventually turn into a felony and he will have to come see us. What is the max per day that we can fine him?"

"No less than $10 and no more than $50 per day," said Hodges.

Boileau said he believes the owner had no intention of removing the camper due to the issues at hand.

"That sounds good," said Boileau. “Fifty dollars a day is a lot of money. I am going to pull the water meter tomorrow and cut the sewer line, which is illegal anyway because it is on top of the ground. He had no intentions of moving that trailer when he left here at the last meeting."

"I just wanted to be sure we could move forward with that legally," said Shafer.