NEIGHBOR BUYS, CLEANS CONDEMNED PROPERTY

On Monday, police served James King with summonses for failing to clean up two lots he owned on the city's south side.

By Thursday, King sold one of the lots, and with ecstatic neighbors watching, a man in a backhoe demolished the frame house at 509 Rear Linden, scooping up the house and the junk that filled the house and yard.

Some of King's neighbors had filed complaints with the city about his yards covered with junk piles, and had petitioned the City Council to force King to clean his property.

The backhoe grabs scoops filled with old clothing, plastic milk crates, box springs and building material. William Woodall, who bought the property, said he "didn't want to go in there and try to dig out everything. There's snakes and everything in there."

Woodall lives next door at 509 Linden. He said he'd been trying to buy the lot for years, but King wouldn't sell until the city condemned the property.

Woodall and his brother-in-law run a lawn care business and plan to park their equipment there. Some of that equipment, plus Woodall's boat, now sit in his backyard. Woodall said that would give his children more backyard to play in.

King lives at the other house cited for violations: 1118 Ranney.

After failing to meet the city's deadline for cleaning them up, police handed him two summonses and ordered him to show up in court on Tuesday.

Richard Murray, Cape Girardeau's chief building inspector, said King must appear on the summons claiming he failed to maintain his property.

Murray expects the judge to be lenient with King because of the new owner cleaned one lot and King has cleaned much of the yard behind his home.

Murray said this was the eighth structure torn down because of the 1994 minimum property maintenance code.