Council now targeting commercial blight

The Cairo City Council is expanding its war on blight to target the most unkempt commercial areas of the city.
Cairo Mayor Richard VanLandingham is leading the charge to expand the nuisance abatement program to address commercial and industrial properties in the city, primarily in the central business district.
“We need to improve some of our commercial and industrial areas. The buildings themselves, as well as the businesses operating. There are some that are very negative to the community,” the mayor said.
City Attorney Thomas L. Lehman informed the mayor and council that the same process in place for dealing with dilapidated and unkempt residential properties can be used to force the clean up of commercial areas.
“We just need to do what we did with residential and come up with a priority list and go from there,” Councilman James H. (Jimmy) Douglas said.
“Good, because I’ve had some real concerns and complaints from folks asking for us to deal with these issues,” the mayor said.