As if battling mortgage and insurance companies didn’t give Kathy Ross enough problems after an April storm dropped a tree through her Porters Chapel Road home, now she says the City of Vicksburg has accused her of neglecting her property.

Ross was angered this week to find the city published a public notice in The Vicksburg Post stating her property will be included in a public hearing at the city’s Board of Mayor and Aldermen regular meeting July 21. The notice states the property must be cleaned up as it is “a hazard or menace to the health, safety and welfare of the citizens of the City of Vicksburg.”

“This has been one headache after another,” said Ross, who was cleared to hire a contract company to rebuild her house this week. “Nobody wants my house fixed more than I do.”

Ross has been living in an apartment since an April 4 storm carrying two tornadoes downed trees and power lines across Vicksburg and at Eagle Lake community. The restoration work on her home is expected to take about six months.

Public hearings concerning dilapidated properties are common at regular city board meetings. Mayor Laurence Leyens said the public notices are published only if multiple letters sent to homeowners about the condition of their properties garner no response. But Ross said she was never notified about the city’s concern before reading the newspaper notice Tuesday.

“I was getting calls from people saying the city was going to have my house torn down,” said Ross. “I would have appreciated it if the city would have gotten in touch with me to find out what is going on with my property rather than print their assumptions.”

They did not contact Ross because Brad Derrington was listed as the homeowner, though he said he sold the home to Ross in August 2007. Derrington, a Vicksburg native who now lives north of Nashville, was just as angry as Ross when he learned his name was printed as the property owner in the public notice.

“They’re calling me and my wife out for having an eyesore in the community, and we sold that house a year ago,” said Derrington. “Kathy is a friend of ours, and I know she has been doing everything she can to fix the house.”

Like Ross, however, Derrington said he never received letters from the city about the condition of his former property. Leyens said it sounds like the city made a clerical error.

“All we can do is say, ‘We’re sorry.’ Unfortunately, this has happened three or four times since I’ve been mayor, and I’ve been in contact with the inspections department to make sure our records are correct and up to date,” he said.

Contractors were beginning work on Ross’ home at 1695 Porters Chapel Road on Thursday. Leyens said as long as work is being done on any property designated as a public eyesore or health concern the owners do not have to worry about city interference.

The public hearing “will be dropped,” he said. “We have no interest in assessing the work or doing it ourselves. When people tell us they’re going to address the issues, we cooperate with them.”

Director of Building & Inspection Victor Gray-Lewis was not available to comment on Ross’ situation or the public notices process.