Sewer repairs will fall on property owners in Pinehurst

David Ball

For The Record

Here's the deal. The city of Pinehurst will fix or replace a bad sewer line, but the customer must pay for the repair or face consequences.

The Pinehurst City Council amended their utilities ordinance to include the procedure for replacement or repair of customers' defective sewer lines at their regular meeting on Tuesday night.

The ordinance reads:

"If a property owner fails to repair or replace defective sewer lines within 30 days, once notified by the city building official, the city may repair the defect and place the cost of repair on the customer's water bill. If customer refuse to pay charges placed on water bill, the city may terminate water service to property. The property may not be occupied once water service is terminated. The property owner may be subject fines and citations if charges are not paid."

Harry Vine, code enforcement officer, said this will update the wastewater ordinance and put it in line with state requirements.

City Manager Robbie Hood said it places more responsibility on the owners.

Fred Hanauer, police chief, said he was impressed with hurricane preparedness from the city's departments.

"Everyone was jumping through hoops to get what was needed done. I'm confident we've done everything we can do," he said.

Vine said his department is mowing dozens of abandoned properties throughout the city and code enforcement is trying to motivate people to clean up their properties.

Moreover, he said there's been an outbreak of scrap tires being dumped in Pinehurst and also in Orange. Some locations have more than 50 tires dumped there.

Hood asked drivers to make sure they keep their trash in their vehicles and not toss it out the window and for residents to call the police if they see someone dumping tires.

Councilman T.W. Permenter pointed out grass is growing tall in front of an old shopping center across from Granger Chevrolet on MacArthur Drive.

The city's reinvestment zone was expanded to include properties on the lefthand side of 28th Street. Hood said reinvestment zones are used to entice business to relocate to a community.

Lastly, Permenter, Hood and City Secretary Debbie Cormier were added to the selection review committee to develop scopes of work, review proposals and provide recommendations for grant administration and management services and engineering services for Hurricane Harvey Community Development Block Grant — Disaster Recovery through the Texas General Office.

They were also appointed to the FY 2019-2020 CDBG with the Texas Department of Agriculture.