Delhi takes aim at abandoned houses, cars

The Town of Delhi will be cleaning up its streets and looking at cutting costs.

Mayor Jesse Washington said the council is working to create an ordinance which will make it easier for the town to clean up abandoned property.

“I get a lot of calls about blighted property and it’s a problem in the town of Delhi,” Washington said. “About 80 percent of the property isn’t even owned by people who live here.”

Washington said he wants the council to work at creating an ordinance which would outline the steps needed to define blighted property and what steps the town should take in dealing with it.

“If anyone gets hurt in one of those houses, it’s going to be a liability for the town,” he noted.

Councilman Henry Washington also asked if something could be done to remove non-operable vehicles on May Street. 

Police Chief Roy Williams said his office could collect the information on the cars and contact the owners. Any cars which the owner didn’t take care of could then be towed.

In other business, Washington suggested the town should look at its policy for allowing free use of its rental properties for the purposes of repasses.

Currently, the Town of Delhi allows families hosting a repass meal following their loved one’s funeral to use the rec center or country club at no charge.

“But we still have to pay overtime to set the building up and clean it afterward and we pay for the utilities,” Washington pointed out. “It does cost the town money.”

Washington said he understood the significance of the ritual but felt that it should not be treated any differently than any other gathering for the sake of billing.

Alderman Bobby Benson said he hated to see the town charge for the use of the buildings to host repasses.

“These people were citizens,” he pointed out. “They paid taxes and when they die, they have to pay again.”

It was also pointed out that Head Start uses the civic center for free many times a year. If the town was going to start charging for repasses, he pointed out, it should probably charge Head Start as well.

“If you’re going to throw a net over them, you better throw it over everyone,” Benson said.

Citizens Leonard Guine asked the town to carefully consider the idea of charging for educational meetings.

“If you are going to invest in anything, it should be our children,” he pointed out. “They are our future.”

The council decided to look into the cost of labor and utilities to discover the normal cost to the town of providing the buildings for the use of repasses and then revisit the issue again after it had more information.