Bessemer looks to take a bite out of blight

BESSEMER - The Bessemer City Council, Monday evening, adopted an amendment to the city's zoning ordinance to cut down on blight.

According to information provided at the meeting, the city has cut 21 lawns this year and the property owners were billed July 8. To date, four property owners have payed their bills.

Under the new zoning ordinance, the property owner has five days to comply upon receiving a notice from the city to remove the blight from their property.

If the property owner does not comply, he or she will be charged accordingly for the cost to remove the blight.

The first offense is $100. The fine for the first repeat offense is $200, and the fine for any subsequent offenses is $300.

Council member Linda Nelson said if the property owner does not pay the fines, the amount will be included in the property owner's taxes.

Also on the agenda, the board discussed moving forward with the city's master plan.

Mayor Kathy Whitburn said the council received two proposals.

She asked the council if it's the right move to ask for new bids and see if the council could receive additional bids.

Council member Linda Nelson said the council should focus on hiring a city manager first before worrying about establishing a master plan.

"We have enough problems as it is," she said. "We should get a city manager and go forward from there."

Council member Robert Coleman said he would like the future city manager to review the two proposals.

"That's something we really can't act on right now," he said.

After much discussion, the council agreed to ask the two companies which submitted proposals what their deadline is for their bid.

Because Bessemer doesn't have a city manager, council member John Frello said the council has had to dig deep in documentation and found the city is lacking in "a lot" of areas.

Whitburn said, "There's a job description for positions in the office that states they have to be able to operate office machines, computers and be able to type.

"Yet, there's a lot of software that should be part of the job description," she said.

The council agreed to have updated job descriptions by Sept. 1.

Whitburn said she thinks the Bessemer Department of Public Works employees should be given a separate phone for conducting business, instead of using their personal phones.

Nelson suggested to let DPW crew use their personal phones.

"This crew doesn't want to have to carry around two phones," she said.

Coleman agreed, saying that's another phone "you can drop in a ditch."

Whitburn said it wouldn't hurt to see what the costs are. The council approved for city clerk Jim Trudgeon to look into the expenses for phones.

The council agreed to hire election workers for today's election. The chairperson will be Nancy Berg. The three morning inspectors will be Bruce Carlson, Pat Matrella, and Dean Spagnoletti. The three afternoon inspectors will be Helen Grebner, Paul Erickson and Mary Ann Bennetts.

Finally, the council rescheduled its next meeting to Tuesday, Sept. 6, to avoid Labor Day.