Saying it’s time to “start cracking down” on those who’ve allowed their lots to remain overgrown since the tornado despite repeated written warnings from the City, Greensburg City Administrator Steve Hewitt turned Tuesday night’s City Council meeting over to City Attorney Gordon Stull for an explanation of how the City can go about taking such offenders to court.
Saying the “judicial option” is the only real alternative to continuing the administrative route of the past, involving sending of letters and eventual abatement action against negligent landowners, Stull said violation of the city code in regard to the weed ordinance, or nuisance properties, amounts to the equivalent of a Class B misdemeanor, which carries a potential penalty of a $1,000 fine and up to 179 days in jail.
“We can file a criminal action against them (violators) to get their attention,” Stull said. “If they plead not guilty, there would be a trial, or they can plead guilty or no contest, in which case the judge would determine the penalty.”
“We want to be tougher on people who let things go,” Hewitt told the council. “We’ve been lenient up until now, but now it’s time to enforce the code.”
“It’s now 16 months after the tornado and time to clean things up,” Councilman Matt Christenson agreed.
“People have been calling our bluff on this, waiting until we show we’re serious,” Councilman Brandon Hosheit added. “It’s time to show them we are.”
Sensing a consensus on the matter, Hewitt concluded the topic by saying, “We’ll start to file some complaints and I think we’ll have an active court by the end of the month. Of course, this isn’t just about weeds, but similar violations of the code dealing with nuisance properties.”
In other matters…
*Hewitt said Xtreme Structures President Tim Schmidt was likely a bit overly optimistic in his projections earlier this summer he could be pouring concrete for his custom housing factory before the end of the year.
“He’s very aggressive and wants to get going as soon as possible,” Hewitt said. “But it takes a while to start up a second plant from a first one in California and it’s taking a while to set up a potential client base here in the Midwest. We’ve (the City) done all we can at this point to facilitate this and Tim’s still working at this. It’s just not going to happen quite as quickly as he’d originally hoped it would.”
*The council gave the okay to purchase a 2009 Ford F550 as a new bucket truck at a cost of $82,300. With the funds in place to make the purchase and the City having already spent $20,000 to rent such a vehicle Hewitt said it made no sense to wait any longer. Approval was also given to spend up to $79
Greensburg, KS —
