Commissioners and the county judge, with the help of a law firm, are out to clean up Milam County.
The county is going to step up its efforts to go after property owners who are fouling their land with illegal dumping.
Milam County Judge Steve Young said that the messes the county encounters are many times the result of someone doing something like getting paid to haul off tires then dumping them illegally.
Other times there have been cases where someone is allowing people to dump trash on their property for a fee when that property is not a qualified landfill.
The county at its last meeting expanded its contract with McCreary, Veselka, Bragg and Allen. The law firm currently assists the county with tax collections.
Before the vote, Connor Buchanan, a lawyer with the firm, told commissioners that the contract expansion would not cost the county any new funds.
“We want to be your one-stop shop for taking care of your collections,” Buchanan said.
The commissioners voted to do just that when they voted to renew that contract and add to it that the firm would prosecute health and safety code violators. The law firm’s fee increased from 15% to 20% of funds collected for the added responsibilities.
“This will be a big boost for the county,” Young said after the meeting.
“We get calls about this weekly,” he said, adding that the law firm will take care of notifying possible violators that they need to clean up their property all the way to prosecuting those who do not follow the clean-up directive.
Once a property owner has been informed that their property is in violation, they have 30 days to clean up the property. Land owners also have the option of asking for a public hearing before the commissioners to “determine whether or not the recommendation we are giving is appropriate,” Young said.
Property owners could end up having their property sold with the proceeds going to the county which is what happened to property in Rockdale that was found in violation of the health and safety code.
“That is exactly what we will do in the (Richard) Thrasher case,” he said. “We are going to sell it.”
“This sends a strong message that we are not going to put up with this kind of thing,” Young said.
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