CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — City officials in Mathis are trying to get property owners to mow their tall grass and to board up their abandoned buildings, hoping to clean up the town.
Dorin Walker is the city’s one and only Code Enforcement officer.
He is helping to ensure that the city manager’s mandate to clean up the city is carried out.
Residents who do not comply will get a letter from Walker explaining that they need to clean up their act or else.
”On the letter, it will say you have 30 days to clean it up, you know, or you can face consequences after that, which comes into court fees and emergency abatements,” he said.
City Manager Cedric Davis has been on the job since January and beautifying the city has been one of his top priorities as the city tries to attract new businesses and developers to town.
”When those potential businesses come out they can see a small community that's striving to be better, so we're not just sitting where they see a bunch of blight," Davis said.
Walker showed 3NEWS different areas around town where residents aren’t following code enforcement standards.
“This is one of our alleyways. The owner of this property, I guess figured it was a good idea to put his boat in that alleyway. This blocks the easement for electrical companies that have to come in here or us when we have to come in and mow it,” he said.
Other past problem properties like an abandoned building located along one of the entrances to the city has been brought up to code through Walker’s efforts.
”This property in particular was a burnt out structure I noticed after the last violation the building had a lot of openings so, I wrote the letter to the landlord, to the owner of the property and eventually he came out and he boarded it up,” he said.
Walker said he’s a very proactive officer but that doesn’t mean he wants to hand out tickets. He said this is not a numbers game, he simply wants to get compliance.
Davis said tons of debris has already been removed by the city, but much work remains as he and Walker work to clean up Mathis.