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Citing the developer was not totally at fault, the Cowan City Council did not move forward on June 13 with fining Joe Denby for a delay in getting building permits for the Slagtown Road subdivision.

Denby would have been facing a fine with a total that could have exceeded $60,000 at $25 per day per each of the 25 lots in the subdivision over a 99-day time span extending from Feb. 28 to June 6.

Questions were brought up about why Denby did not have the necessary building permits.

Interim Mayor Anthony Ingle said the property in question in the east part of Cowan was not annexed by the city at the time Denby began to develop it, and he was allowed by a key city leader to begin the project with an assumption he would get the permits later after the property had been annexed.

“There was a lack of communication,” Ingle said, referring to how the issue had fallen by the wayside.

City Recorder Mary Pearson said that when Denby was informed about the situation, he promptly paid $11,500 for the 25 permits at $460 each.

When Ingle asked for a motion to fine Denby, no councilman spoke up, and the issue died for lack of support.

A woman in the audience questioned whether Denby was getting preferential treatment by being excluded from paying the fines.

Councilman Richard Hunt, who was later named as Cowan’s new mayor, said the circumstances were out of Denby’s control. He added that Denby had tried to get permits, but the Planning Commission lacked a quorum in one instance and was unable to conduct business.

“It wasn’t all on him,” Hunt said, referring to Denby. “If it would have been, we would have fined him.”

Ingle echoed Hunt’s assessment.

“The majority of the fault was on the city. It wasn’t on Mr. Denby,” he said.