City preparing to move forward on derelict buildings

“We got some notes that we’re prioritizing and following up with a public workshop,” Walden said. “We’ll have announcements on that in the near future.”

Alderman Kenneth Nash asked if the nuisance officer could attend a council meeting to answer any questions. Seay said Brown now has access to a computer program that shows what he’s working on and that it could be used to keep Nash better informed.

Nash said he had been trying to obtain that information by reading police reports but hadn’t seen any nuisance reports. Those reports are prepared using the police department program but aren’t regular incident reports, Seay indicated, adding that Brown would be asked to print them out.

Walden said Thursday that feedback from aldermen on what they want addressed is being summarized for follow-up action. The city will be using a St. Louis law firm specializing in municipal law to address some items in the short term.

Information has been provided to aldermen on an as-needed basis and new software will soon allow it to be printed out anytime, he told The Salem News.

“We’re hoping to even have a public version of that where people can go to a website and see that list, and see what complaints have been reported and what the status is of those different complaints,” he said. Walden hopes to have it up and running in the next couple of months.

Some less urgent matters being discussed include better specifying zoning requirements in city ordinances to show what’s allowed for different kinds of properties. “We want to be consistent with state statutes on that,” Walden said. “It’s been a few years since any of our aldermen have looked at that. We’re playing a little catchup, and determining what options we want for specific kinds of zoning.”