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Council delays vote to condemn home
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Published: November 3, 2009
The Statesville City Council decided at Monday night's regular meeting to table a matter involving the condemnation of a dilapidated historic house in which a man still lives.
City Planning Director David Currier recommended delaying the second reading of a condemnation resolution for the house at 621 W. Sharpe St.
Currier said the house's owner, Emmitt Neal Scroggs, had paid off seven of the nine years of back taxes he owed on the property. Scroggs and the Iredell County Tax Department, he said, have come to terms on a payment schedule for the remaining two years.
City leaders mentioned the house recently in the same context as the Anderson House, a mansion that had fallen into such disrepair that the council voted to demolish it earlier this year.
But the Scroggs house, which was built in the mid-1800s according to neighbors, is not as much of an eyesore from the outside — as was the Anderson House — as it is simply unfit for human occupation on the inside.
Currier said only one room in the house is even close to being inhabitable. The rest of it, he said, is in very poor condition.
Currier said tabling the matter gives Scroggs time to enlist the help of "social" groups — such as Habitat for Humanity — to help him restore the house to a level of habitability. At a previous meeting, Currier said Scroggs told city and county inspectors that he "would not spend a dime" fixing the house because he was essentially indigent.
The council approved readings on the condemnation of three other dilapidated homes on Monday.
Also at Monday's meeting, the council:
— Recognized Iredell County resident Dale Wilson, who was honored this summer as National Disabled Veteran of the Year.
"The tragedy he suffered when he was only 19 years old was the catalyst for one of the most exemplary lives I've ever heard of," Mayor Costi Kutteh said while presenting Wilson with the resolution.
Wilson, who lost both legs and an arm from an explosion while in combat in Vietnam, said he was proud to be from the area.
"I've been on three continents and most of the states," he said. "And I've never felt more home than I do in Statesville and Iredell County."
— Approved the site plan for the construction of a new Employment Security Commission office building.
The new facility will be located on Island Ford Road in the northwestern part of the city.
— Raised the pay of the Statesville Police Department's new Gang Intelligence Investigator from pay grade 15 to pay grade 17.
Police Chief Tom Anderson said the position, which is mostly paid for with grant funds, is more complicated than originally believed. The raise amounts to an additional $5,069 per year.
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