The cleanup has begun in earnest at the Richie Thrasher property, 1300 and 1328 East Cameron (US 79), but it’s unclear how long the massive job will take, or how much it will cost.
The two-acre property has been a beehive of work during the past couple of weeks as buyers haul off items they purchased during a Nov. 13 auction, after which they were given 30 days to haul off their newly-acquired property.
COST—Simultaneously, Milam County has set to work preparing items which were not sold last month to be moved off the property.
County Judge Steve Young said a contractor is on the site and is being paid $1,500 per day for his work.
“That includes a dozer, skid steer and excavator,” Young said.
Operator Ray Allison has also been assisting those purchasers who have been streaming into the property ever since the auction.
Getting a handle on the final eventual cost is more difficult. While the auction did raise an impressive $76,000, estimating the final cost to clear off the massive number of items on the land is pretty close to impossible at the moment.
“It is really hard to know how much this will (eventually) cost,” Young said. “We will start hauling some of the items to a Temple-area landfill soon. And there is still a lot of scrap iron to haul off to a scrap place, as well.”
RECOUP—It’s also unclear how much of the eventual price tag the county will be able to recoup.
“I doubt there is much more income,” Young said.
“When we finish, the law requires that I send Mr. Thrasher a bill for the cleanup and, if he cannot pay, then we will assess a lien against the property, then foreclose and that means we will sell it at an auction on the courthouse square.”
Thrasher has been arrested three times in connection with the state of the property, most recently for bail jumping/failure to appear and illegal dumping.
EYESORE—For years the county, and City of Rockdale, have been attempting to get the property cleaned up after receiving numerous complaints about it being an “eyesore.”
Officials also noted it is located on the major highway through town.
The actual legal battle has now lasted more than a year and a half.
In March, 2018, Thrasher was found guilty in Rockdale Municipal Court on six counts of keeping a junkyard within 1,000 feet of a highway and was assessed the first in a series of fines.
There were repeated attempts at forcing a property cleanup by both the city and county, including a 30-day deadline to begin cleaning up the site, a deadline which was not met, according to Young.
In June of this year Thrasher was indicted by a Milam County Grand Jury for bail jumping/failure to appear after missing a court date and was arrested.
In September, after missing another court date, he was indicted again on the same charge and was again arrested and he was fined $62,000.
At that point, the total of his fines and court costs had grown to $122,612.
Next came the auction, which drew a crowd of more than 100.
MORE TARGETS—
Young emphasized the Thrasher property is not the only property in the Rockdale area where the county is working on a cleanup.
“We are working on several more sites, as well, including the Cypress Trail area behind Walmart, a tire dump outside Milano, the William Hairston Place and there are others,” he said.
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