By Nate Smith, Staff Writer
The city of Washington may soon have a new weapon in its war on trash as the City Council had its first look at a new nuisance ordinance Monday.
Nuisance, in the definition of Monday’s proposed ordinance, is trash, waste or harmful chemicals on a piece of property.
The ordinance, to be voted on at the council’s April 27 meeting, will bring penalties to $500 for those who don’t keep their properties clean.
“(This ordinance) really replaces what we have now,” City Attorney Jeff Norris said.
In the ordinance, if a complaint is made to the city’s building commissioner, the person can inspect the property, either from the street or by getting a search warrant, and if there is too much trash, the resident has 10 days to remove it.
If the property is not cleaned up in 10 days, the city can clean it up by using its own employees or hiring a contractor. The costs of the cleanup will then be charged to the homeowner.
The first offense of the proposed ordinance will be $100. A two-time offender will get $250 in fines and a three-time offender will be levied a $500 fine.
Also, the city could take the property owner to court and a judge could give a fine up to $5,000 and community service, Norris said.
Mayor Larry Haag said the new ordinance was needed because the original ordinance limited the city on its options.
“We’re up against the wall in many cases,” Haag said. “We now have some accountability and enforceability to clean up this city.”
An appeal process was also defined in the ordinance. Although there was no vote on the ordinance Monday, there were some signals of agreement.
“This is probably the most complaints I get is about trash,” Councilman Joe Fleck said.
The ordinance was one of seven slated to be introduced at Monday’s council meeting.
In other business:
LEVEL BILLING
ORDINANCES
Three of the seven ordinances introduced involved a “level billing” system for electric, water and stormwater bills.
Utility office manager Anita Ash said although her office has offered the program before, there was nothing on the city ordinance books about it.
“We looked at some other cities to see how they do theirs,” Ash said. “If people would like to sign up for budget billing, they can do it once a year.”
According to Ash and the ordinances, a homeowner would start in July and receive July’s bill every month. At the end of the next June, any remaining balance would have to be paid or any over payment would be subtracted from the next bill. Anyone can sign up for level billing, but the program would start in June.
Councilman Tom Baumert said he was concerned that homeowners could be facing unexpected high bills in June. Ash said that with utility bills, there would be the homeowner’s actual bill shown with it.
The council will vote on the three ordinances at its next meeting.
METER ORDINANCES
Two of the seven ordinances were not actually introduced Monday. The ordinances were for reading meters.
Ash said meter readers were having more trouble trying to read meters and have to estimate bills.
“I don’t know how many times a week a meter reader comes back to me and say ‘Can you send a letter to so and so about their meter?’” Ash said. “And this ordinance takes care of this.”
After a letter from the city, a resident has 30 days to remove any brush or problem that could be hindering the meter being read.
If not, a professional crew could be called in and the problem could be fixed and the homeowner billed. The sticking point with council members was who would pay the contractors directly, the city or the homeowner.
Although the consensus was the city would pay the contractor and the homeowner would pay the city, there was no sufficient language in the ordinance. A revised ordinance will be introduced at the council’s next meeting.
LEAK POLICY
The Board of Public Works and Safety adopted 3-0 a leak adjustment policy for homeowners that have a one-time major water or wastewater leak. The adjustment would be for one time over the course of the life of the ownership of a property and would have to be documented with repair bills and a technician to inspect the property.
