“The city has condemned house because of inhabitable living conditions based on the roach problem and several other problems,” he said.
The house is owned by Jerry A. Kuhr, according to the Greene County Auditor’s office. A man at the home who identified himself as the owner declined to comment Saturday.
Furniture and trash has been sitting on the curb for days and roaches have been running from the home for days before an exterminator arrived Saturday morning, said neighbor Harlan Glassburn.
“The people moved out and left the roaches and the landlord didn’t want to do nothing,” he said. “All that stuff has still got roaches in it.”
Glassburn said he and other neighbors have spent hundreds of dollars trying to protect their homes from the infestation.
David Wood paid $750 Sunday morning to have his house sprayed for termites and roaches.
“(The exterminator) said ‘You’re going to fight this for a year,’” Wood said.
The resident living in the home moved out, said Beckman. The owner has seven days to clean up the property or he will be cited and ordered into court.
“We have to follow our legal process and this is another example of how when we receive a complaint from the neighbor or from the resident, we jump on them immediately,” Beckman said.
The complaints this week were the first the city had heard of the problems with the home, he said.
“We can’t be everywhere at once so we have to rely on our residents to help us out with that,” he said.