Ridgeley looks into Zombie Property law
Ronda Wertman
Special to the News Tribune
RIDGELEY – Local municipalities are hopeful that the Zombie Property Remediation Act of 2021 coupled with Mineral County’s Building Safety Committee will provide relief from the dilapidated properties which are an eye sore and potential hazard.
“The county is hoping to work with you in any way that we can,” said Mineral County Commissioner Dr. Richard Lechliter as he met recently with the Ridgeley mayor and council.
“This has been a problem since before I was mayor. Buildings and properties that we’re not proud of in our county and state,” he said, explaining that previously efforts through the building safety committee were a two-year process and if the property owner paid $25 the process started all over again.
Jan 30, 2021
We have a slight quibble with Mayor Eddie Sundquist’s State of the City address last week that is symptomatic of something we have noticed from Sundquist’s first year in office.
The mayor does himself no favors when he makes statements that can be easily refuted with a quick Google search.
For example, Sundquist said Monday during his State of the City address that for the first time in decades, the city has allocated funding to improve neighborhoods and provide direct funding to homeowner to make necessary repairs to their homes.
It’s not hard to see that statement doesn’t hold up to the slightest bit of scrutiny. The city has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years in Community Development Block Grant dollars on activities like housing demolitions, owner occupied housing repairs, rental property repairs, targeted code enforcement sweeps in eligible neighborhoods, Zombie Property work going back at least six years and partnering with non-pro