Warden council passes property maintenance resolutions

WARDEN – The Warden City Council held its regular meeting Tuesday with all members in attendance. The meeting called into discussion an update on Public Works projects, the approval of the Port of Warden Annexation and weed abatement rules. 

“The key point of the business items was probably the weed abatement,” said Kristine Shuler, City Administrator for Warden. 

The Weed Abatement Resolution involves two properties, with one being located at 212 E. Third St, across from the city park, for Resolution 05-2025, and the other is an empty lot on Third Street for Resolution 06-2025, with both resolutions approved at the meeting. Shuler said the properties both have longstanding issues with overgrown grass and weeds. 

The owners of the properties in question have both been informed by the city on multiple occasions that they need to clean up their land, but have not yet complied, city representatives said. One of the properties have been partially cleaned up recently, but it is unknown who did the work. 

“With that, when the owner does not comply with the requests, the next step is to go to this enforcement action where the city issues a resolution that allows that to be cleaned up on behalf of the property owner,” she said. 

The resolutions give the property owners a number of days to clean the land before the city takes charge and puts a lien on the property that the owner would still have to pay. Along with the fees to clean up the property will be a $375 fine for not dealing with the weeds by a given deadline, with that money getting split between the city, county and state. 

Annexing property near the Port of Warden into the city was also approved at the meeting under Ordinance 854. This portion of property was left out of the description of the original annexation, so this decision was made to finalize that process, said Shuler.  

“The port is just trying to encompass all of the property there at the airport to be annexed altogether,” she said. 

The meeting also discussed the Public Works projects around the city, such as the load conversion project, which is reaching completion. Shuler said the goal is to finalize that project to ensure readiness for Warden Community Day on Monday. 

Public Works also advised of the addition of no-truck-parking signs to be placed around town due to issues of individuals parking in certain areas along the road. 

One item of business regarding the SCJ Alliance has been rescheduled for the next council meeting, as more information needs to be collected.  

Improvement designs for water processing in the city are nearing completion, and Public Works will begin the construction process soon, as the funding for the project will need to be spent by October of next year. They are also working on updating the telemetry system for the water and wastewater systems, said Shuler. 

“They are outdated, so we’re going to be looking at updating those,” she said.