Unsightly town property finally being cleaned up

Dave Oelhafen may not be going to court after all.

The owner of the property at highways LL and A in the Town of Belgium is cleaning up his parcel after the Town Board last month approved taking the matter to court since other tactics hadn’t worked.

“I talked to Dave the other day. He called me back finally after quite a few phone calls,” Supr. Tom Bichler said at Monday’s Town Board meeting.

“He has maybe four or five more loads to haul out, all smaller stuff. He’s made great progress and he’ll be done pretty soon.”

Town Chairman Tom Winker lauded Bichler for his work on the matter.

“I will have to compliment Tom. He went out of his way to contact this man. He wasn’t the easiest guy to deal with,” Winker said.

Bichler said Oelhafen is in the process of moving to a different county.

The town has received complaints about the property and has been trying to remedy the issue since last summer.

The town sent Oelhafen a letter last fall giving him 60 days to clean up the property or face a daily fine. The deadline passed in November, and the board gave him one more chance to comply before taking legal action.

A letter from town attorney Paul Alexy sent in late January acknowledged that Oelhafen has had some personal setbacks but remind him “significant action” needs to be taken to remedy the violation of the town code or the issue could be sent to circuit court.

“It’s extremely unsightly. It was bad enough when the corn was there. Now, it’s awful,” Winker said last month.