Commissioners review ordinances at special meeting

At Monday night?s special city council meeting at St. Paul Hall, area residents were given the opportunity to voice their concerns over the appearance of the town and the effectiveness of the city ordinances already in place. The first topic of discussion was the appearance of ?junk? cars within city limits. Junk cars are defined by the ordinance as vehicles that are without a license or are not ?streetworthy?.

The ordinance was amended in 2002 to give the city the ability to write tickets and tow vehicles in violation if needed. Despite the effort to simplify the procedure, city officials are still required to send notification to the owner of the vehicle before it can be towed. If a ticket is written, the owner is required to appear in court within 10 days to verify that they have removed the vehicle from the property. If the violation is not corrected, at least two notices are sent from the magistrate requesting that a fine be paid, which may cost as much as $200.

The time spent in tracking down people for notification slows down the process and many situations can take months to be corrected, if ever. According to city manager, Joe Hefele ?There was one that was written in May and its still [having] letters come from the court.? Time constraints have become a major concern for city officials. Residents also are concerned as their property values are significantly affected by violators of the ordinances. However, recent legislation may offer city officials the opportunity to circumvent the court process altogether as Governor Granholm signed a new law to give communities more tools to combat blight.

Although the option is still being researched, if allowed, a first ticket would be issued and violators would have 10 days to correct it before receiving a fine. A second offense would be allowed no grace period and those who do not pay may face jail time. A related issue that came up this past year was whether race cars should be considered in violation of ordinance 2002-8G.

Any race car driver that resides in the city of Onaway and chooses to store their vehicle in their yard during the racing season, is technically in violation of the ordinance as it is currently written. Last season, Hefele, who is responsible for enforcing the ordinances, allowed one race car per property as long as it was on a trailer and had a license plate. Commissioner Bernie Schmeltzer offered his suggestion of requiring all race car drivers to

register their vehicle. One registered vehicle would then be allowed per property during the racing season only. Fees for registering may be negotiable. Another option offered by the new legislation would be to create a local ?Hearings Bureau? dedicated to resolving individual cases. The city also will be looking into having one of the part-time police officers function as an ordinance officer. City manager Joe Hefele believes having an officer dedicate one day a week to enforcing ordinance violations would improve response time significantly as well as deter potential hazards involved in entering private property.

Residents and city officials seemed to agree that all ordinances should be observed regardless of whether the violator is a business or a homeowner. City officials resolved to take all ideas and concerns of the residents who attended the meeting into consideration as they decide how to promote a cleaner and safer city.