Police spearhead cleanup

     Toccoa police chief Jimmy Mize said police officers and city code enforcement personnel were busy in November and December with an effort to clean up areas of the city.
    Mize said the police department contacted the owners of property behind the former Social Security building and Tractor Supply off Big A Road and let them know the condition of the properties on Stephen Drive and Stephen Extension.
    Mize said officers also, requested a letter from them (property owners) allowing  code enforcement to write tickets prosecuting persons trespassing on the property.
    That resulted in an order on Nov. 24 for four persons to vacate the property.
    “Officers kept the property under surveillance and one of the barred individuals returned,” Mize said. “She was cited and given a court date.”
     However, Mize said that “debris, trash, wood, and some tarps” remained on the property and the code enforcement personnel contacted the property owners again.
     Working with Stephens County sheriff Randy Shirley, Mize said that inmate work crews assisted in a Dec. 27 clean-up project for the property.
     City of Toccoa utilities director Harry Scott and departmental crew members also assisted with heavy machinery in the clean-up effort.
    “Between the city crews and inmates, five dump truck loads were taken off the property,” Mize said.
     “With the rain setting in, work was done for the day with very little to finish as weather permits,” he said.
    Mize also said that code enforcement has had an ongoing issue on Skyline Drive where a landlord from Jackson County has not kept four apartments he owns at the top of the road clean or maintained.
    “Officers were able to serve civil process on (landlord Derrick Allison) in April of 2021,” Mize said. “Since that time he has had five court dates in which he failed to appear.”
    Mize said that city building and code personnel inspected the four apartments and deemed them “uninhabitable and failed building code.”
   “The tenants have been served eviction notices...” Mize said, adding that they were scheduled to be evicted on Jan. 2.
    “Allison also failed to renew his city business license for the 2021 year and cannot renew his 2022 license until his appearance in court,” Mize said. “This has been an ongoing effort to clean up the area.”