PHOTOS BY JENNIFER COLTON
The city of Umatilla is preparing for a little spring cleaning, starting with the destruction from a fire last summer on South Hill.
In June, four homes burned in a fire on Pheasant Ridge Street. Three out of four homeowners have worked to rebuild and put the devastation behind them; the owners of 2622 Pheasant Ridge, however, had a different response: nothing.
The occupants of the home at 2622 at the time of the fire were renting the property and were in the process of moving out. The property owner has not responded to city requests for cleanup and did not pay property taxes this year, according to Umatilla City Manager Bob Ward.
“We have sent notices, and they were returned with no forwarding address,” Ward said. “There really is no recourse.”
Since the fire, the fire department has used the site for controlled burn education to bring down the remains of the structure. Only debris remains on site now.
“We are still planning to file a lien on the property once we get the cleanup done and get the bill for the cleanup,” Ward said.
If the property owners do not file taxes for three years, the county can seize that property and put it up for auction. The county would receive its back taxes first, and, if any money remains, the city could then be paid its abatement costs.
In other clean up news, the Umatilla City Council authorized the removal of hazardous trees around Umatilla. Some of the trees are dead or rotten, and others were damaged in wind storms. About 25 trees will be removed.
“Where we can, we will replace the trees,” Ward said. “We are budging to replace trees wherever it is practical to do so.”
The city is also looking at bringing the community into the clean-up effort. Ward said that the city’s Code Improvement Board has developed six zones in Umatilla, basically two zones from each of the three major areas.
Ward said if the city can coordinate with Sanitary Disposal’s spring clean-up days, secure volunteer coordinators and enlist public works support and equipment, the city could create an annual program that would “not only be effective in its cleanup effort, but would also generate awareness of the value of maintaining these results throughout the year.”
Ward said the city is looking into April for the Community Wide Cleanup to time with Sanitary Disposal’s free dump days.
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