By Crystal McGough
Copy Editor
CLAY — Clay citizen LeAngela Young appealed to the Clay City Council during public comments Tuesday night with her concerns after trespassers on the road commonly known as “Moon Tower Road” shot and killed two of her baby goats inside her fence.
“For the last two years, I think two years ago a local real estate developer purchased the property going up to that, I don’t know if you want to call it a mountain or whatever, and the access to it has been opened,” Young said. “We get lots of people speeding and shooting guns, partying all times of the night, and myself and my neighbors have tried to adjust to it.”
Young went on to say that late in the night on Friday, Jan. 4, two female baby goats were shot and killed inside of the fence on her property.
“We couldn’t see (the suspects) on the cameras,” Young said. “We just woke up that morning and (the goats) weren’t moving. I didn’t know what to do. We did file a report with the sheriff and they are investigating, but I just feel like that road has caused so much headache. It’s just out of hand.”
City Manager Ronnie Dixon responded to Young’s concerns by saying that one of the problems that the city, as well as Jefferson County, has with the property is that they cannot establish ownership of any of those parcels of land. Dixon said that when the city has searched tax records for the property in question, they have found records of six to 12 different owners.
“Everybody’s kind of in the same situation, in that when that…corporation…when they filed bankruptcy and all of the owners spread, you can’t get anybody to take responsibility for it,” he said. “We’re just kind of stuck. We can’t barricade the road because we don’t own it. It has never been accepted into the city of Clay as an approved road and we don’t have anybody to write a letter or make a phone call to, because all of that property still shows HADG as the owner and they’re non-existent.”
Councilor Don Baker suggested having the city’s contract sheriff’s deputies increase patrol of that area, and also asked if it would be possible to put a security camera on that road. Dixon said that they could possibly put one of the city’s trailers there, but that there is no electricity.
“It’s just a big mess,” Dixon said. “There’s nobody that we can find that can legally grant an easement to the power company for power lines or anything like that.”
Jerri Christian, another Clay citizen, added her own concerns to Young’s, asking the city about the possibility of putting security cameras in the city’s subdivisions.
“I am having a nightmare, pretty much, to what I came from in the community of south Eastlake,” she said. “Years ago I lived there. When I moved there, it was beautiful. A few years after staying there, I saw it declining, and it was with crime coming in and nothing ever got done about it. Now what we’re seeing is our neighboring communities with crime rising; we want Clay to stay safe. What I thought about was, if we had cameras in all of our subdivisions…maybe this would help keep the criminals out.”
Dixon said that the HOA of the Somersby subdivision has already purchased and installed cameras, and that they are the city’s first large subdivision that has done so. The residential-type camera they installed runs around $10,000, he said.
“It’s not something that the city of Clay can afford,” Dixon said of installing cameras into every subdivision in the city.
The cameras in the city that are monitored by the sheriff’s department are $75,000 a piece, Dixon added. The city does have it in this year’s budget to purchase one more.
During the “Mayor’s Comments” portion of the meeting, Center Point Fire District’s new Fire Chief Gene Coleman introduced himself and gave updates from the fire district. Coleman was appointed fire chief in December.
“I’ve been a resident of this community about 45 to 50 years now,” Coleman said. “It’s an honor to be your fire chief. We’ve had our most busy year in the history of the department, over 9,000 calls, which is a lot for an organization our size. Unfortunately, I’m sad to report that we had four fire fatalities this past year. It’s our job to hopefully prevent that. We are working on a couple of initiatives to make sure folks have smoke detectors. If you don’t have a working smoke detector, most definitely call us; we can get one installed for you at no charge.”
In other city news, the council passed two motions appointing and reappointing members to the Planning and Zoning Committee. Charles Agnew was reappointed to start a new six-year term and Robert Thompson was reappointed to finish out the last four years of his six-year term. LeWayne Allen was appointed to the committee in place of Steve Ostaseski, who Mayor Charles Webster said asked to step down.
Councilor Dennis Locke announced the December 2018 School Grant award winners. They are as follows:
•Clay Elementary School – First grade teacher Keisha Smith, who plans to use the funds for a “plant anti-bullying” science experiment.
•CCMS – Amber Norris, of the CCMS Mathematics Department, plans to purchase batteries, rechargeable batteries and chargers, as well as Quadrille composition books.
•CCHS – English Language Arts teacher Christopher Pegg plans to purchase a Chromebook and copies of the books “Fahrenheit 451” and “Lord of the Flies.”
The next Clay City Council meeting will be Jan. 22, 2019, beginning at 6 p.m. with a pre-council meeting.