City: Tire store needs more cleanup

City: Tire store needs more cleanup

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City officials are continuing to fine the owner of a tire business after they visited the property last week and determined more work needs to be done.

The mayor and aldermen visited the  business following their April 20 meeting to check on the cleanup efforts.

They began fining Hardy Tire, 293 W Beacon St., $500 per day on April 12 due to what they’ve said is the owner’s failure to keep his property clean of old tires, junk and other debris.

Owner Bobby Hardy said Monday the tires keep coming in, and he disposes of them as fast as he can.

During the board’s April 20 meeting, Mayor James A. Young asked the aldermen for guidance as to what standard of cleanliness the business must meet to end the fines.

“We need to be able to give him an endpoint to where you move forward with no fine,” Young said. “The fine is ongoing but you need to decide when he gets to a point, the fine ceases.”

The aldermen decided to visit the business April 20 following their meeting to see what had been done.

All agreed that progress had been made but felt more needed to be done.

“It looks like there is some work to be done,” said Ward 2 Alderman Jim Fulton, which summed up the general feeling of the board.

On Monday, Young again visited the property.

“He is making some progress and has had some delays,” Young said. “He couldn’t move some stuff that was loaded. We still have a long way to go. There may be some things we can do to mitigate some things. I told him we are going to work with him as we would any other business.”

Young said the city realizes it is a tire shop and some tires will always be on the property.

“But there are other things we can do to ensure we are all on the same page,” Young said.

Hardy said he has an expensive tire shredding machine on the property that he is using to shred the tires.

“We shredded at least three days last week,” Hardy said. “There’s a dumpster out there almost full of shredded material.”

Hardy said he had yet to receive a fine or a citation from the city in regard to the city’s directive to clean the property.

“The $500 per day fine is still on,” Young said Monday, adding the board has not rescinded the order. “It is in their power to do so and that’s a decision they will have to make. We have to get to a point where this is where we want to be (as far as property upkeep). We want to make sure he is treated as fair as anyone else.”

In other matters at the board’s April 20 meeting, aldermen voted to:

• Approve the minutes of the previous meeting and the claims docket;

• Approve to pay MBC $9,836 for work done at the Depot;

• Approve the payment of $67,460 to Tony Watson Electric for work done on the new Automated Weather Observing System (AWOS) being installed at the Philadelphia Airport;

• Approve hiring Steve Carter to work for the Street Department;

• Approve a road bore along Poplar Avenue by AT&T;

• Approve the hiring of Virginia McDonald as a corporal for the police department. • Accepted the resignation of Melissa Shackelford in the PD; and,

• Approve a travel request for fire chief Pierce Clark to travel to Volk Field, Wisconsin, for task force training. Travel expenses will be reimbursed. 

• Clark asked the city for a letter to the Wireless Commission stating the city will be moving forward to the change over with MSWIN radio system.

Scott Hawkins contributed to this report.






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