City runs into hurdle in removing fire-damaged property

Latimer approves 2017-18 budget
     The Latimer Council approved its fiscal year 2018 budget with a 10-cent increase per $1,000 of valued property, raising taxes to a total of $14.14.
     Revenues are set at $585,823 and expenditures are set at $540,392, with no capital improvement projects budgeted.
     In other news, the council ran into a hurdle in its plan to tear down the property on 121 S Akir Street that was burned in a house fire over the summer.
     Public Works Director Wayne Pralle said that he had looked through the property with an asbestos mitigator, who said that the property is 70 percent burned, with no way to access the basement. Because the steps to the basement are linoleum, which contains the asbestos, it was assumed that the whole house was “hot,” meaning the whole house was expected to contain asbestos, and needed to be disposed of properly.
    Read the full article in the March 15 edition of the Hampton Chronicle.