June 25, 2023
By: Dwayne Page
Causing quite a stink!
For months residents on Nikki Lane off Highway 70 east in the Midway Community have had to put up with the stinky, unsightly and unsanitary condition of a neighbor’s unkempt property and they want something done about it
Toni Fruehauf addressed members of the county commission during their monthly committee of the whole meeting Thursday night asking for help.
“I live on a street that only houses eight families, but they are all impacted by one home that is piled in filth,” said Fruehauf. “This particular situation has been going on for over a year. It stinks, and we now have rats and mice coming from it, not to mention the bugs that are coming from this filth.”
Rather than taking it to the dump, Fruehauf claims this neighbor over a period of time has piled more than 100 garbage bags around his home and high on his porch and she produced pictures to back up her claims for the commissioners to see for themselves.
This is not the first time Fruehauf has sought help about this problem.
“I’ve called TDEC (Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation), spoken with Sheriff Patrick Ray, and the county mayor, only to be told that there is nothing they can do. There are no health and safety standards in DeKalb County to allow them to help. I along with other residents want it changed because its just wrong on so many levels,” Fruehauf said.
According to Fruehauf, one neighbor had to erect a privacy fence and put in a new sidewalk and porch area that they can’t use because of the smell. “She now gets insects on the inside of her home, has to put out rat poison, and is always afraid her dogs might eat it.”
“The neighbor across the street has been in her home for over 40 years, and now has to pay Terminix over $1,000 a year to keep from being infested. She’s never had to do this before,” said Fruehauf.
“This is a health problem, a vermin problem, and it smells horrible, not to mention lowering all of our property values. This is a change that needs to be addressed. Imagine if this was your neighbor.”
After hearing the concerns of Fruehauf, County Fire Chief Donny Green, who was also at the meeting, informed the commissioners of another incident recently involving a major fire of wooden pallets from a business on Highway 53 at Liberty which sent plumes of smoke into the air for hours as firefighters fought the blaze. Heat from the fire damaged utility lines and the thick smoke spread throughout the community affecting residents and livestock. Although this call may have been the largest one from this location, the county fire department has had to respond to other fires there in the past
“Neither the state nor the county can do anything about that right now because technically they are not violating any laws,” Chief Green told the commission. “In the past, people had a good neighbor policy, and you just didn’t do that all the time.”
“The people around that property are suffering. I would hate to live around there. Liberty is in a basin to where the smoke just settles in there. Smoke gets pulled into people’s HVAC units, and it affects people with COPD or asthma,” Green continued. “There are even reports that the smoke is affecting the livestock in the area.”
“I know this is a business, but this is costing the county a lot of money. The last time, we were down there for five hours with four fire trucks, two tankers, and 23 personnel. That’s just the last time we were there. We’ve been down there regularly, and it’s costing us a lot of money,” said Chief Green
“It’s something that if the state can’t get involved in, then we are going to have to get involved in it. This is an everyday occurrence. It’s not burning once a week or once a month, it’s an everyday major operation. The fire department is not regulatory. We don’t get into saying if someone is in violation or not.”
“It’s a shame that we have to talk about making new laws over issues like this,” Green concluded. “Just being good neighbors would solve it, but unfortunately people think different sometimes.”
DeKalb County currently has no zoning regulations in place, such as the “County Powers Act” with respect to the regulations of nuisances and other practices detrimental to the inhabitants of the county
According to CTAS (County Technical Assistance Service), counties in Tennessee may adopt a “County Powers Act” but must also adopt enforcement regulations. Both actions require two thirds vote of the county commission.
County Mayor Matt Adcock said neighboring Putnam County operates under a “County Powers Act”
“They have a committee that comes together to address health and safety issues and then send a letter, issuing a warning that they (property owners in violation) have so many days to fix the issue or face a fine.”
“We would have to set some criteria, like whether it is affecting someone’s health, or their wellbeing or safety,” said County Mayor Adcock.
Adcock added that he plans to send the matter for further study to the Government Services Committee of the county commission.