Cole County commissioners on Tuesday granted two landowners additional time to clean their properties.
The commission agrees to give Ronald Butts 180 days to clean up and move lawnmowers and vehicles on his property in the 3500 block of Cassidy Road. Butts said the county had taken complaints on his property back in 2009, and the commission at that time had given extra time to make improvements, which he did, and the county had found he was in compliance.
Then in April, the county received complaints by some of Butts' neighbors about a large number of lawnmowers and vehicles on the property.
Butts said he had lost his job and had family medical issues arise in the past few months. He said he had made efforts to get the property cleaned up, but he needed more time to get it to the level the county was requesting. He asked commissioners for 180 additional days and showed them pictures of what he had done.
Commissioners granted the request, but they added that in 90 days, they would have code enforcement come out to check on his progress.
The commissioners also granted a cleanup extension on property in the 1900 block of Osage Ash Street in Osage City. Property owner Gilbert Stanley was granted a 60-day extension to remove excess vehicles from his property. Code enforcement officials said their recent check of the property showed 65 vehicles were on the lot. Stanley said he had medical and family issues in the past few months, but had moved some of the vehicles off and was also looking at trying to put a storage building on the property to keep the vehicles in.