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Neighbor upset over blight, contacts 2 On Your Side for clean sweep

1 year 11 months 2 days ago Tuesday, April 26 2022 Apr 26, 2022 April 26, 2022 7:20 PM April 26, 2022 in News
Source: WBRZ

BATON ROUGE - A blighted property on River Road near West Roosevelt Street has become a dumping ground and a place for people to rummage through junk.

Jackie Williams lives next door and says she has been in touch with the City-Parish about the condition of the lot since 2015. She says it's time something is done to clean it up permanently.

The lot is overgrown with trees, weeds, and tall grass. There's a rusted car, a riding lawnmower, garbage cans, tires, an old air conditioning unit, and dog cage among the items around the property.

Williams says the property owner moved out in 2015 and doesn't come back much. She says the house on the property hasn't been touched in all that time.

"You cannot live in there, no," said Williams. "It's filthy."

Filthy might be an understatement. For the last seven years, Williams has been fighting the blight and has contacted the City-Parish at least 200 times.

The property owner, Alexander Twine, has been taken to blight court over the mess. Williams says after a court date, her neighbor cuts the grass or moves around some items on the lot to keep up, then she doesn't see him.

Recently someone stole a car and other items off the lot.

"People were breaking into the house," said Williams.

Twine told 2 On Your Side's Brittany Weiss on Tuesday that he does not intend to sell the property. He says he hasn't had a problem with the lot until recently and needs help to clean it up.

"I've been trying to clean it up," he said.

Williams says differently.

"It's just a dumping ground," she said.

The City-Parish has been out to the lot several times to clean it up. They're trying to see if it's condemnable.

Tuesday, a maintenance crew visited the property to schedule another clean up. The city says the house is not secure and plan to reach out to the property owner again about keeping it secure. The city plans to clean up the lot this week.

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