Deteriorating buildings and properties in disarray were topics of discussion during the October 5 Kimball City Council meeting.

City Building Inspector John Heidemann was on hand consulting with the council, city administrator Harold Farrar, and city attorney Kent Hadenfeld on how to move forward on two privately own properties within city limits in which, according to officials, are unsafe and uninhabitable.

The properties at issue are 214 North Walnut, and the Hilltop Trailer Court along Highway 71 on the southern edge of town. The Walnut street property is listed as being owned by William Woodward, who was not in attendance during the discussion. The Hilltop Trailer Court property is listed as being owned by Larry and Julie Modak. Neither  were in attendance at last week’s meeting with the city council.

According to the building inspector report dated April 12, 2011, the Woodward property on Walnut Street “is in great disrepair.” The document pointed out a series of problems, such as broken and unsecured windows with plastic tarps being used to fix the roof.

Heidmann also made note of a large and unsafe dead tree in the northeast corner of the property.

The building report for the Hilltop Trailer Court dates back to the summer of 2010. It indicates that all eight trailer homes are in disrepair with numerous broken windows. The report noted that some of the trailers have no skirting and the ones that do are broken. Siding on the trailer homes are broken and have unsafe porches, the report added.

“I also observed two cats going into trailer homes and looks like someone is possibly feeding the cats,” Heidemann said in his report.

The city council unanimously decided to give the property owners 60 days to either fix or demolish the properties from the date they receive notice to do so. The property owners may appeal to the city council within 10 days of the notice to request a hearing on the matter.

If an appeal is not made and the properties in question are not fixed or destroyed, the city will, then, have the authority to destroy the property under state law.