MIDDLESBORO — Two members of Thankful Baptist Church were present at the Middlesboro City Council meeting on Tuesday night to discuss a recurring mudslide that blocks church members from parking. Some heated comments were exchanged as the public brought their case to council members.

“I have a few requests to see if you guys could look into it,” began the church representative. “Number one: Does the sweeper still go up 19th Street?”

Street Department Superintendent Leemon Moyers was quick to respond. “The sweeper? Yes.”

“Well it’s getting in our church ‘cause I had to get out there with a shovel and shovel up all that mud,” the church representative continued.

“It’s just now sweeper weather,” said Moyers. “We don’t run the sweeper in the winter time.”

Councilman Ronnie Carter intervened. “I brought this up two or three weeks ago at a meeting, that something needed to be done about that. Me and my son [Councilman Lucas Carter] suggested that hay barriers or straw be put up there to keep it from washing down on 19th Street. He [Moyers] didn’t think it needed it.”

“Leemon, that hay I asked you about, did you get that out?” questioned Councilman Lucas Carter.

“No,” Moyers responded. “We went up there and cleaned that up off the side, when it rains, it comes off that hill up there, there ain’t no way to stop all that water from coming down through there. When it rains, we’re going to have water down through there. We’ve got water all over town.”

“But that’s mud,” commented the church representative.

“We talked up here last week for 30 minutes about storm water, run off and stuff, that’s a storm water issue right there. That’s something that should have straw put up and protect 19th Street, the church and whatever is down through there,” said Councilman Carter.

“It certainly sounds like that obviously we can clean it up for now,” stated Councilman Rob Lincks.

“We did clean it up for now, that’s what I’m telling you,” Moyers said to Lincks.

“We need to find out who the property owner is,” Lincks said, referring to the land where the mudslide is, behind the church. “They need to rectify the situation if it continues to happen. Certainly we can do that. Surely to goodness, we can figure that out,” Lincks said.

“I got no comments on it, okay? No comments,” answered Moyers.

“Our problems just didn’t start this year. We’ve just been lax on saying anything about it,” said the church representative. “So, it’s not that the dirt just showed up this year.”

Councilman Gary Mills suggested that Storm Water Program Manager Randy Melton look into the mud and debris. “Randy, isn’t that your jurisdiction,” asked Mills. Melton agreed that it was and said he would look into the issue on behalf of the church.

Church representatives also notified the city that Bell County Concrete trucks were crushing the church sidewalk. The representative said that the sidewalks were repaired at one time but are now in the same condition as before. Councilmembers did not discuss an immediate resolution to the church’s crumbling sidewalk.

Melton discussed the recent success with PRIDE clean up. Melton said that 96 people served as PRIDE volunteers, collecting 122 bags of trash. He is still accepting volunteers for the last week in April. If anyone is interested, they may contact Melton at City Hall.

Councilmembers were set to consider a previous request by S.A. Mars III for street closures, however the issue was tabled. Mars — who was present — said that in the future, an engineer could attend the meeting with him and he thought that “it would be inappropriate to try and discuss it without their engineering help.”

In other news, the council approved the following:

• Minutes of April 7 meeting

• Police and fire reports

• Ordinance amending the city’s privilege license fees

• Authorization to advertise for bids for vehicle exhaust removal for Middlesboro Fire Dept. (FEMA grant funded)

• Appointment of Harold “Doc” Massengill as member of Board of Housing Appeals and Planning Commission

During the parks and recreation report, Councilman Doug Hughes expressed his enthusiasm for the city’s “Hooked on Fishing” event.

“It just done me good. There was a lot of smiling kids and that’s just worth it. They are our future,” Hughes stated. “The smile on those kids’ faces was unreal.”

There were no other reports and the council meeting was adjourned. They will meet again on Tuesday, May 5 at 7 p.m. at City Hall.

Sarah Miracle is a staff writer for the Daily News. She can be contacted via e-mail at smiracle@middlesborodailynews.com.