Gravette Council OKs lot splits, cleanup liens

GRAVETTE — In a short meeting last Thursday night, members of the Gravette city council approved two lot splits and cleanup liens for two properties within the city.

Officers from the Military Order of the Purple Heart held a proclamation ceremony declaring Gravette as a Purple Heart City and presented a plaque designating the city as such. This ceremony will be covered in detail in next week’s Westside Eagle Observer.

Ordinances were passed authorizing lot splits on two pieces of property located on Hiwasse Road in the Hiwasse community. Both are owned by David Pruitt.

Two resolutions were passed authorizing the city to enforce and collect cleanup liens against two properties. One lien, in the amount of $5,989.13, was assessed against property at 403 Birmingham Street, S.W., owned by Willie and Linda Henson. The other, in the amount of $175, was assessed against property at 13418 Sandusky Drive, owned by Susan R. Keasey. The resolutions state that owners of both parcels of land were given proper notice of nuisance conditions on their properties. When the owners failed to take any action within the allotted time, the city then cleaned up the property at its expense and are now attempting to collect for those cleanup costs.

Jerel and Jennifer Ellis, owners of property at 606 Second Avenue, S.W., paid the bill for the cleanup costs on their parcel prior to the council meeting and avoided having the lien assessed against their property.

Abraham Zamoya, a citizen who lives at 703 Sixth Avenue, S.W., spoke during the comment period in regard to a fence he has constructed around his front yard. Zamoya built the fence in excess of the specified height of three feet. After two notices from the city that he was in violation of the height requirement, he appeared before the council and asked for a waiver to leave the fence as it is. He said he had checked with his neighbors when he built the fence and no one had any objections to his building it at that height. He was told that council members would discuss the issue at the May 12 committee of the whole meeting and let him know their decision by the May 26 council meeting.