NOLA SIZEMORE

Staff Writer

At a meeting of the Evarts City Council on Tuesday, Police Chief Lupe Blas gave a report on several issues ranging from tickets to nuisance complaints. He told members of the council with the purchase of a cell phone for the police department, as approved in their last meeting, communication with the Harlan Police Department dispatch service had improved.

“This is working out really good and we’re not having any missed calls,” said Blas. “We do, however, have one handheld radio and cruiser radio that is not working. It keeps returning out of range. It’s good we have the cell phones because we had an incident where an officer needed backup and he tried to use the radio and it was useless. We notified Cary Johnson and he will repair the radios this week.”

Blas noted his department had red-tagged junk cars on Scoville Street and the owners have since removed them. He said his department has been issuing parking violation tickets since the new ordinance went into effect.

“Residents are getting better about not parking in front of the bank,” said Blas. “It’s going to cost them $15 each time they park there with the new ordinance.”

Blas said he had talked with the Tire Barn Manager Daryl Phillips, about violating the city’s nuisance ordinance by having trash and piles of trashed tires on his premises. He said this violation has now been turned over to the Harlan County Solid Waste Department regarding the tires.

“Lakis (Mavinidis) has cited them to court over the tires,” said city clerk Kristi Lamb. “They have until the last day of April to get the tires cleaned up. As far as the trash part, the city will have to take action on that.”

Another resident was notified about violating the nuisance ordinance by having a “trashed yard” Blas said. After a verbal warning, Blas said the resident agreed to gather trash and pile it on the roadside for Evarts city garbage truck to pick up. He said he gave the resident until the second week of April to have this done, however, the resident has not followed through completely. He recommended the city serve the resident with a written notice to clean his yard up or be cited to court.

Mayor Eddie Manning introduced the city’s new fire chief Cledo Powers, who was sworn in April 4 after the former fire chief, David McGill, resigned.

“I think he is well deserving of this position,” said Manning. “He’ll do a good job for the city. Once Cledo was sworn in as our fire chief he and I, along with some of the fire department members backed up and got the state to agree to pay our fire truck payment with our state aid check. For the next five years instead of us paying two payments a year, the state aid check will pay one and our fire department will only have to pay one payment per year. That will save us about $20,000 over the life of that loan. This worked out good. I really appreciate Cledo working this out with us.”

Powers asked if the fire department could host a roadblock on April 28 to help purchase uniform shirts for his department. Council members approved that request.

Manning told council members state Rep. Rick Nelson had contacted him this week and told him the state will be paving KY 2430 all the way to Baileys Creek within the next few weeks. Manning said he hopes with this paving it will eliminate water standing in the roadway near Evarts Funeral Home. He also noted a night payment box is now available at city hall for those who are unable to get to city hall during the hours of operation to make their payments.

Reach Nola Sizemore at 606-573-4510 or nsizemore@heartlandpublications.com