Grant County looks to clean up yards

EPHRATA — Looking to crack down on Grant County residents with junk- and trash-filled property, officials met Tuesday to discuss ways of increasing compliance with county codes.

Grant County Commission Chairman LeRoy Allison said the commissioners are facilitating meetings with county officials to improve the process of code enforcement.

Allison said the current approach is to get violators to voluntarily comply, but that may have to change.

"Neighbors get mad because they think (junky yards are) going to drive the value of their property and house down," Grant County Commissioner Richard Stevens said in an interview Thursday.

David Nelson, director of the Grant County Department of Community Development, said code enforcement officers are swamped investigating more than 500 separate cases of potential violations. The number of new cases, opened after a complaint is issued, increases all the time while previous cases are not being resolved, sometimes for several years, he added.

Those with junk-strewn property are given ample time to comply with codes, often up to a year or more. As a final step, a citation or infraction is issued if non-compliance continues.

But tickets written by Grant County Health District officials and a code enforcement officer from Nelson's office are too frequently being dismissed or differed in Grant County District Court, Nelson said.

Violators often go before a judge in district court to contest the citations and infractions, receiving a dismissal or deferral of the case when prosecutors or officers don't attend the hearing to argue for a penalty.

"There's really no teeth in the infraction process," he told the Columbia Basin Herald.

Nelson recommends violators be issued an infraction earlier, up to four weeks after a complaint is investigated.

Gerald Campbell, the health district's environmental director, said dismissals and deferrals allow violators to continually ignore citations for solid waste.

"We have some cases that are differed for months at a time," Campbell said.

Grant County Prosecutor John Knodell said violators must receive certain punishment, to deter future problems. He recommends a speedy resolution of cases.

Knodell suggests ending the process of allowing those issued citations and infractions to escape penalty for current violations by cleaning up their property several months later.

"Once a ticket has been issued, the negotiation process has been exhausted," Knodell said.

A meeting of county officials, including district court judges, is scheduled for July 10 to discuss the issue further.