Suzanne Stewart
Staff Writer
At the special Marlinton Town Council meeting Monday afternoon, the hottest topic on the agenda was the incident that occurred at Diane Apartments November 13.
Council members and property owners Crystal Dean and Danny Akers discussed in detail what occurred that day.
Dean opened by explaining she purchased a piece of property next to one she already owned because she wanted it to be cleaned up, stating there was always trash in the yard around the house.
After successfully purchasing the property, Dean said she went to court to get the tenants evicted and received a court order that stated the tenants had 20 days to remove themselves and all their personal items from the property.
“The very last sentence of that court order is ‘the defendant shall remove themselves, any guests and all personal property and trash from the above listed property,”’ Dean read. “They had twenty days to appeal it. Once those twenty days were over and done, we contacted the [manager] of Diane Apartments; contacted the state police.
“The State Police said that we were well within our means to deliver that personal property [to the new residence]. Everything was court ordered to be returned to them,” she continued. “So that’s what we did.”
On November 13, Akers took six loads of stuff from the property and dumped it in the parking lot at Diane Apartments, where the former tenants moved after vacating Dean’s property.
Akers spoke and said he didn’t understand why the town got involved because he moved the property from one piece of private property to another.
Akers went on to say he had a conversation with both Mayor Sam Felton and councilmember and Code Enforcement Officer Scott Gibb.
“Do you remember your exact words?” Akers asked Felton. “’Take it up there and dump it. We’ll clean it up.’ That’s what you said. I have it on recording if I need it for defense. I hope we don’t go that far because Mr. Gibb came and did the same thing.”
Gibb explained that he did tell Akers that the mayor said take it up there and dump it, but what bothered them was that Akers took a last load to the Diane Apartments after the town had cleaned up a large pile.
“I took six, a total of six loads of their belongings,” Akers said. “Not yours. Not yours. Not his. Nobody’s but them people that lived there, which is private land from private land. Nothing concerned the town until you put your nose in it.”
Felton admitted that hindsight is 20/20 and he wished he had not gotten involved, but said some of the belongings were blowing around town and causing a nuisance.
Prior to the discussion, council had an executive session with town attorney Jared Fallon, who spoke for council after hearing both Dean and Akers explain their side of the story.
Fallon explained that the town incurred manpower and expenses and said the town will draft a letter and bill to send to Dean to recoup those expenses.
“I encourage that,” Dean said. “I encourage a bill. I’ll pay for the postage.”
Fallon explained that council is trying to enforce ordinances and when an ordinance is broken, the person breaking it must pay a price.
Dean said she felt council was picking and choosing who it bills when ordinances are broken and asked why it doesn’t enforce the ordinances with everyone.
“Let me ask you this, off the top of your head, how much did you send a bill to Rick and Tiffany Moore for when you cleaned up their property?” Dean asked. “I’d be interested in knowing how much that bill was. Was there a bill sent?”
“Probably not,” Felton answered.
With the information provided, Felton asked council how it would like to proceed with the issue.
Recorder Mary Clendenin and councilmember Tina Barkley both expressed their opinion that, before making a final decision, there needed to be a further investigation, considering the information provided at the meeting.
Clendenin said she was not aware the state police had been called and said Dean and Akers were within their rights to do what they did. Barkley said she wanted to know why Dean and Akers were being billed for the incident and not the tenant whose property was dumped at Diane Apartments.
With these questions in mind, councilmember Joe Smith said he thought council should put everything on hold and investigate the new information.
Fallon agreed and asked Dean for a copy of the court order she was issued.
In other business, council approved:
• to give Felton permission to sign paperwork related to the Community Development Block Grant for the sewer system improvements project.
• second reading of the revisions to the ordinance to implement a municipal sales and service tax and a municipal use tax.
• bid from Woodford Oil for propane gas and heating oil.
Marlinton Town Council meets the first Monday of each month, excluding holidays, in the town office auditorium. The public is welcome to attend in person or online through a Zoom link.
