BURKET – Burket Town Council on Thursday discussed complaints of trash in people’s yard.
Council President Bill Rayburn brought up a complaint about 109 E. Center St. He said a letter was sent to the property owners.
A resident by the name of Vicki also brought up 119 Market St. because trash has accumulated on that property and the trash ordinance needed to be enforced on both properties.
Rayburn said he hasn’t had time to look deeply into the Market Street property.
Vicki brought up continuing issues with area properties. Rayburn said letters have been sent in situations where the council has been made aware of issues.
Vicki said there are a lot of houses with issues, including at least one with furniture in the backyard, and that’s why the town approved townwide trash pickup. But, she said, it’s not doing any good. She said people have made complaints and the issue has not been resolved.
Rayburn said the town is working on limited resources. He said the town does send out reminders to all households not to burn things and similar items. He also brought up one instance of a property having issues with furniture in the yard. He said the furniture was moved to the porch, which solved the issue.
He also said it does take time to send out a second and third offense letter and to go to court if it goes that far.
Earlier in the meeting, the town’s Community Crossings grant through the Indiana Department of Transportation was discussed.
Rayburn said Phend & Brown quoted the town about $268,000 to pave 80% of the town’s streets. The Community Crossings grant is a 75/25 matching grant, so the town applied for about $201,000 from the grant.
Rayburn sent the bid paperwork into INDOT, but was told they needed the contract as well. Rayburn said a contract was made up, which was signed and approved on April 6, which was the last day of submission for the grant, and it was submitted to INDOT.
Rayburn said as far as he knows, the submission is good and the town is waiting on the funds from the grant.
