For all you homeowners in Slidell who have not fixed up their blighted houses, and continue to disregard building codes, beware, because the new administration is getting tough on violators.

For instance, last week, Slidell City Court Judge Jim Lamz tossed a man in jail for contempt of court, because he did not do any repair work on his storm damaged home in Yester Oaks subdivision after being ordered to do so back on Dec. 18, 2008.

According to City Attorney Patrick Berrigan, the homeowner, Randall Richard, was released from the Slidell City Jail several hours later on probation. Lamz warned Richard that he has until Feb. 15, 2011, to finish repairs on the home, or else Richard will go back to jail. Lamz has set up a schedule of repairs, and inspectors from the Slidell Department of Building Safety and Permits will make frequent inspections to make sure the work is getting done.

The owner of this house on Woodcrest Drive in Slidell was jailed for contempt of court because of continuing code violations. (Staff Photo by Erik Sanzenbach)

The house does have some boarded up windows, and the grass has been cut, but there is also exposed tarpaper on the outside, the backyard fence is broken and there is a pile of construction debris near the front door.

Berrigan said that the city is not fooling around anymore with people who refuse to do something about their blighted homes.

“We will bring up contempt charges on a lot of them,” Berrigan said. “We will hand out citations that will get them into court.”

According to Berrigan, Richard told Lamz at the Aug. 16 hearing that his contractor was not cooperating with him and he couldn’t get any work done on the house.

“The mayor and the city council are adamant that there be no more excuses,” Berrigan said. He said currently there are 20 blighted homes in the city is trying to either get repaired or torn down.

The problem is that Berrigan and the Department of Building Safety and Permits cannot find the owners.

“The majority of the blighted homes have absentee owners,” Berrigan said.

All the blighted homes have been sitting empty and posing a hazard to neighbors since Hurricane Katrina.

“It is sad that five years after the storm, there are people who don’t either have the money or the inclination to take care of their houses,” Berrigan said.

Since the storm, the old city council was lenient in giving people the time to do repairs before they declared the structures condemned and then ordered demolition. However, the new council is not going to be lenient anymore, Berrigan said.

“The mayor and the council really want to get going on this, not only for aesthetics, but also for safety,” the city attorney said.

The city is following through with its threats. Berrigan said that between now and Sept. 3, three houses will be demolished.

There is also a concerted effort by Berrigan to find the owners of abandoned swimming pools Berrigan said so far he has found four abandoned swimming pools in the city. They all still have water in them, and have not been cared for. He said that if the owners won’t take care of the pools, the city will have to fill them in.

The attorney said the city recently adopted the International Property Maintenance Code, which will make it easier for code enforcement to take care of the blighted property and abandoned pools.

“The old laws were a bit cumbersome and we are in the process of changing that,” Berrigan said.