Just as it did four years ago, the topic of the authority of the Code Enforcement Office and how it should be applied among the citizenry, took center stage at one of the first meetings of the new Batesville City Board.

Alderman Stan Harrison asked the board to meet an hour before the regular Tuesday meeting this week, and said with the newly elected members he believed the aldermen can instruct Code Enforcement to return to a policy of proactive and aggressive cleanup efforts, including tickets and legal avenues.

Harrison was referring to one of Mayor Hal Ferrell’s first acts when first elected four years ago – using a razor blade to scrape the word Enforcement from the door of the Code Enforcement Office. 

The action infuriated Harrison and Alderman Dennis Land, and disturbed the other three then-aldermen. All three of those are now former board members, and Harrison indicated that their replacements are on board with returning the enforcement part of the Code Office as normal operating procedure.

Earlier this month the aldermen instructed the word Enforcement be returned to the signage at the office.

“I’m very concerned about some things and we have some new people with us now and we are going to get a new direction on getting some things done in Batesville,” Harrison said. “There is property in this town that is not being maintained and not being taken care of, and the only way we are going to get to the bottom of it is to get our code office heavily involved.”

Chief Building Inspector Andy Berryhill told the board that his standard complaint letter was deemed too aggressive by the mayor and he had “lightened them up to be more friendly.”  The new, friendly letters, Berryhill said, did not get the same results.

“We took the more friendly approach and it did not work,” Berryhill said. “My preferred method of dealing with a problem is face-to-face but you can’t always catch people at home. So we have been using door hangers and friendly letters, but as you can see people don’t take friendly very serious.”

Ferrell rebutted Berryhill’s account, saying he only once intervened when a resident of Pollard Street received a letter that threatened him with fines when downed trees were in his yard.

“That was once an instance, and we were able to get that solved by talking with people,” Ferrell said. “I’m for enforcing the code. I think it should be done in a professional manner. I want to be as aggressive as we can.”

Harrison seemed surprised to hear the mayor’s full support of a tougher Code Office.

“I appreciate what you’re saying,” he said. “I think lightning must have struck you because this is the first time since you’ve been elected that you’ve brought this up or made it a priority. I’m glad to see you doing it.”

“I’ve brought it up, you just haven’t heard me,” Ferrell responded, saying that he has always supported a strong Code Office.

He reminded aldermen that he had spent much of a day recently riding the streets with Public Works Director Newt Benson pointing out overgrown and unmaintained parts of Batesville that are city-owned property.

Additionally, Ferrell said he has worked with the Miss. Dept. of Transportation closely in the past year to have the state maintain its right-of-ways better. In that effort, the mayor said he has decided that Batesville crews will have to cut the medians and maintain most of the roadways along Highway 6, especially east of I-55.

“I want to do whatever we need to make our town as beautiful as we can, but MDOT has said they aren’t going to cut it except three times a year. It’s probably going to be left up to us,” he said.

In the end, Berryhill said the Code Office will return to a more aggressive policy and update board members on the results.