News : Vinton Police begin Spring Nuisance Abatements

Vinton Police begin Spring Nuisance Abatements

The Vinton Police Department has begun annual inspection of local properties for nuisance conditions, and have a new tool for residents to report properties they feel are in violation. The City of Vinton has launched a new e-mail address specifically for reporting nuisance and junk violations, and it is junk@vintoniowa.net

Residents can contact the Police Department by e-mail through this address, and are asked to include a specific street address where the violation exists, and even a few pictures of the problem to help officers identify the correct property owner to notify.

While nuisance abatement is an ongoing task for the Police Department, efforts are increased in the spring to clean up nuisances. With last years devastating wind storm, Vinton Police suspended its typical nuisance enforcement, for understandable reasons. Normal inspection, and enforcement of nuisances will resume this year.

“We take nuisances very seriously. It’s a quality of life issue as far as we’re concerned. Nobody wants to look at an eyesore in their neighborhood. We have a lot of events coming up that will showcase our City. Party in the Park, RAGBRAI, the Benton County Fair, the Popcorn City Cruise, Boomtown, and other events will attract people from out of town, and we want to do our part to make sure Vinton looks it’s best.” Police Chief Jeff Tilson said today.

The property owner of record is solely responsible for abating nuisances, even though they may rent the property to someone else, or have no part in the creation of the nuisance. “We’ve had landlords who don’t think they have any responsibility in these matters. Legally, they are the only one we deal with about a nuisance condition on property they own. How they in turn deal with their tenants is between the landlord and their tenant, and we do not get involved in that.” Tilson added.

Nuisances can consist of many things, but typically are vehicles or parts of vehicles or trailers on a property that are either un-licensed, inoperable, or both. Nuisances can also consist of properties with accumulations of junk, such as old tires, car parts, scrap metal, appliances, remodeling waste, garbage, demolition debris, and other materials.

Inspections are generally done by officers driving by a property and visually determining if vehicles are properly licensed, and appear to have all required parts to be legally operated on the public roadways. If a nuisance is found, photographs are taken to document the condition of the property.

Once a property is found in violation of the nuisance ordinances, the property owner is given a written Order to Abate the nuisance either by certified mail, or delivered in person by a Vinton Police Officer.

“This order has all of the information the property owner needs to identify the problem, and correct it, and it gives them a specific period of time, usually 5 to 10 days, to lawfully remove the nuisance before further action is taken by the City.” People call with questions and most of time their question could have been answered by carefully reading the information provided to them in the notice.” Tilson added.

In the case of vehicles, proper removal can include simply removing the vehicle from the City, putting it inside an enclosed building so it is completely out of view, or licensing and repairing the vehicle so that it is street legal within the time allotted. The order also clearly states the legal consequences for failing to abate the nuisance.

“Most of the time, this Order is all that we have to do to clear away a nuisance quickly. Occasionally, people served with an abatement order simply ignore them, or convince themselves that there must be some mistake that they received it, or in a few instances, get extremely hostile with us thinking that they are going to get us to give up on enforcing the law in their case, and take no action to abate the nuisance.” Tilson said.

In those instances where the property owner fails, or blatantly refuses to take the notice seriously, the Police Department has no other choice but to initiate court action to remove the nuisance, and that typically happens two or three times a year.

“Once the court proceedings are over with a property owner, we seldom have to address the issue of nuisance abatement with them ever again. Most realize that it is much cheaper to keep their property clean in the first place.” Tilson added, “we have a very good record on these cases in court, we have yet to lose one if we get to that stage.” Civil penalties can be imposed which can cost up to $750 per day that a nuisance remains, the court can order the City to enter the property, clean it up, and assess the costs involved for doing it to the property owner. In exceptional cases, the property owner can be arrested and jailed, charged with an aggravated misdemeanor in State Court, and face penalties of up to 2 years in jail, and a $5,000 fine, or both.