LINCOLN -- The owner of property at 312 North West St. in Lincoln has 30 days to raze or abate problems with a trailer and outbuilding on site or the city will come in and demolish and remove the structures.
The City Council passed a resolution at its April 20 meeting condemning the buildings and declaring the property a nuisance.
The resolution states the buildings on the location are delapidated, dangerous, unslightly and unfit for human habitation and "detrimental to the public welfare of citizens and residents."
City Attorney Steve Zega gave council members a history of the property, which is owned by B.D. Birkes and Dorothy Jane Birkes, according to Washington County real property records.
Zega said Jane Birkes and her daughter, Cheryl Cooper, were initially charged, in September 2019, with illegal disposal of solid waste on an unpermitted site and illegal solid waste management violation in district court in Lincoln. They were arraigned on the charges Oct. 22, 2019.
The trial date was reset several times and then on May 26, 2020, both agreed to plead guilty in return for a suspended sentence and suspended penalties, contingent on them meeting several conditions, Zega said. They had to clean up the property to the satisfaction of Boston Mountain Solid Waste within 30 days and to establish a water/sewer account with the city within 60 days.
The property was inspected about 60 days later and an officer with Boston Mountain reported the property hadn't been cleaned but was worse.
Zega said he filed a petition to revoke the suspended sentence and refiled charges.
Last week, Zega said he made the plea deal with the defendants trying to provide an impetus to get the property cleaned. He said a dumpster is on site now and it appears there have been improvements but noted this is 18 months after charges were first filed.
Mayor Doug Hutchens said the decision to condemn the property isn't made lightly by the city but added it is a "disservice to the rest of the residents in the area to allow this to go on. The only way is to raze it and haul it off."
Birkes addressed the council and said their plan is to tear down the trailer. She asked the council for more time to allow her daughter to clean the property.
"It just takes time. I don't want her to lose her home place," Birkes said.
Cooper said she's living with her mother while she cleans the property. She said she hasn't signed up for a water account with the city because she cannot afford the monthly bill.
Hutchens told Cooper he appreciates what she has been doing, "but we've been knocking this for years." He said he didn't see where she had the resources to mitigate the problem.
Zega said if the property isn't cleaned within the 30-day period, the city would seek bids to demolish the buildings, approve a bid and then the mayor would give a notice to proceed. The city does not take possession of the property but places a lien on it to possibly recoup the city's costs at some point in the future.
The two women will appear in district court on the charges, and council members asked Zega to request leniency from the court.