Published: September 12, 2008 09:03 am      

Planner, Public Service District to inspect Wiley Ford building for citizen’s smell complaint

KEYSER — Making good on a promise to a Wiley Ford resident, Mineral County Planner Scott Clay said he and a representative of the Frankfort Public Service District plan to inspect a house in her neighborhood to see if it could be the source of an odor that she brought to the county commissioners’ attention in July.

Resident Jerry Freeland told Commission President Janice LaRue and Commissioner Wayne Spiggle during the Wiley Ford community meeting held July 29 that a smell in her neighborhood has gotten so bad that “I can’t breathe.”

“I’ve called the health department, I’ve called the EPA and everybody passes the buck,” she said.

A month later, when she brought the problem to the regular county commission meeting, she told the officials she thought the odor was coming from a trailer or some rental apartments located close to her residence.

She wondered if the smell was coming from the sewers in the buildings, or from the large number of feral cats living on the vacant properties.

At that time, County Coordinator Mike Bland told Freeland that Clay, who is also a member of the enforcement agency for the county’s new Safe Building Ordinance, was attempting to gain entry into the structures to see if the odor is, indeed, coming from there.

Tuesday, Clay said he hopes to be able to inspect the property soon, although part of the property has recently been rented out.

“We’re going to check for any dry (sewer) traps which would be a likely source of odor,” he said, noting that when unused traps dry out, they can become a source of sewer gas.

With at least one of the apartments now being occupied, however, the traps would no longer be dry and “that could eliminate the problem,” he said.

As for the feral cat problem, Freeland obtained some cat traps from Humane Officer Jim Hawk on the same day she appeared before the commission in August.

According to Hawk, she had caught two stray cats as of Thursday.

“She still has the traps,” he said.

Contact Liz Beavers at lbeavers@times-news.com.