BELLE — Mayor Daryl White Jr. shared on Aug. 9 that nuisance violations will be more strictly enforced under his administration and Belle Municipal Court Judge Kris Crews will be dedicating 30 minutes prior to each session to ticketed offenders.

“One of my main topics of concern was some of the nuisances we have around town,” White began. “Me and (Terry Connors, former marshal) have been working diligently to start serving letters. We are trying to clean up this town. I talked to Mr. Crews today. Basically what we come up with, if we write a summons for nuisance or somethin’ right now it could be 60 days before we get it on the docket depending on if the docket is full or not. Which is gonna put us in winter and the next thing you know we are gonna be another year talkin’ ‘bout we should have wrote these letters and it’s gonna be dropped.”

White said he didn’t want the issues to be dropped, so he spoke with the judge and determined they could dedicate the first 30 minutes of every court session to nuisance summonses.

“If it takes longer then we can dedicate more to that,” White said. “I suggested that, with what he makes for court duties, I suggested maybe I would address the council for a bit of compensation to take care of this nuisance problem. I would like to dedicate the first 30 minutes of every court until we can get this town cleaned up.”

White said the penalties for violating nuisance ordinances are going to be serious and harsh.

“I would like to bring that to you guys’ attention in case you had anything you want to discuss,” White said. “I would like the penalty right off the bat if it fails to get filled before the next court date to look at doubling (the consequence).”

The city has been working diligently to complete the nuisance letters and reports.

“We would have to amend an ordinance if you guys are in agreement to it,” White said. “I would work on that myself to get this started.”

He re-emphasized that the city has discussed the problem areas in town and nothing is getting done.

“I think it is to the point that people will know that we are not going to follow through with it,” White said. “I think it is time they know we are going to follow through with it. I think it’s time that we are not friendly about it anymore. It’s not a secret that I want this town cleaned up and it’s time to move with it.”

White asked the board for permission to work with the ordinances and present them at a later date. The board agreed via consensus.