The house at 4150 Macon Road is ugly as a bucket full of armpits. But it's not its fault. It suffered a pretty bad fire a while back that left it fairly well gutted and barely standing.

A Concerned Reader called to report the eyesore, but asked that her real name not be used.

"Just say my name is Ann, as in Ann Onymous," she said.

Is that Anne, with an e?

Silence.

"Mike."

Yes?

"It's a fake name," she said. "I don't care how you spell it."

Ann obviously knows nothing about getting into character.

But she knows an ugly house when she sees it. I rode by the house, which is across the street from Park Hill Cemetery, and had to agree with Ann's assessment. In addition to being an eyesore, it could be a danger to curious kids looking for an adventure.

"I'm really getting tired of seeing that burned out wreck every day," she said. "Can you make them tear it down and haul it away?"

No, I can't. But I know who can.

Rebecca Wiggins, city building inspector, said she wasn't aware of anyone yet filing a complaint about 4150 Macon Road, but she said she'd have a look at it and see if it's a candidate for demolition.

I told her it's about half-way there already.

Burned out houses are no different from other dilapidated houses, Wiggins explained. If they're beyond repair, they will be demolished. The city would prefer that the owner, in this case, a real estate company, according to city tax records, do it. But if they won't, the city will have its demolition contractor knock it down and haul it away and then slap a lien on the property, so taxpayers will eventually be repaid for the expense.

Update

You will recall a few weeks ago I wrote about scofflaws illegally riding their bicycles on Broadway sidewalks, endangering innocent pedestrians and irritating shop-keepers who don't want to see their customers maimed.

Brother Rosenberg, who owns Brother's General Store on Broadway, was the one who brought the problem to my attention a few weeks back. So I went

I went by his store Friday to see if there's been any progress.

"I saw half a dozen on the sidewalk just this morning," Rosenberg said. "The city could've made $1,200-$1,500 in fines this morning."

Rosenberg said he's still waiting for the city to put up signs and to start enforcing the law. We will check to see if there's any progress on that front.

Meanwhile, Rosenberg showed me a news clipping from the Binghamton (N.Y.) Press & Sun-Bulletin from a couple of weeks ago. The story is of a 60-year-old Vestal, N.Y., man being charged with third-degree assault for running over a 67-year-old woman on his bicycle, sending her to the hospital with bruises and lacerations.

The incident happened on Vestal's rail trail, its version of the Fall Line Trace, and was the cause of the town enacting a 10 mph speed limit on the trail.

The moral to that story, for our cycling community (of which I consider myself a member) is not to give the city any reason to enact such a draconian speed limit. No one wants that.

Seen something that needs attention? Contact me at 706-571-8570 or mowen@ledger-enquirer.com.