CHATTAHOOCHEE, Fla. (WTXL) - Several Chattahoochee residents say there are too many houses that have been left alone and they want city officials to take notice.
Lannie Boyd and her husband Joe walk around Chattahoochee often, but when Lannie switched up her route, something caught her attention.
"I begin to see these houses, and I realized that our city was in decline, and it made me so sad," said Boyd. "It made me very sad."
This house on Main Street, swallowed up in nature. It's one of 70 homes she says are abandoned.
"Nothing harbors in these buildings except drugs and filth and varmin and snakes and rats," said Boyd.
Marshall Gazaway lives right across the street. He moved here this year into a home that needed some TLC.
"It was in the same shape that these houses are -- been gutted of wiring and plumbing," said Gazaway.
He's fixed it up now, but worries about how these homes will affect the city's future.
"It starts poverty, but as long as this is a community, it's bad, but yet, I feel good with people like Mrs. Boyd, because we can do something about it," Gazaway explained.
Residents who live by an abandoned home like this one say they're worried about their own safety and what happens in a place like this at night. Neighbors who live by this one say they can't remember the last time someone lived there and they want the city to do something about it.
"Get the houses torn down," said Boyd. "Get them repaired."
"The city's not dead. It still has a heartbeat," Gazaway asserted. "So, let's revive it and get the blood going through it."
Residents call this effort "Restoring Chattahoochee" and presented city council a petition with 400 signatures calling for change.
The city manager tells us a hearing with a special magistrate who handles these issues will happen some time next month.
