Nuisance ordinance bogs down

RIZTVILLE – The City Council continued discussions on the amended nuisance ordinance, May 3. The ordinance applies to unsightly and/or unsanitary conditions on property within the city. Several questions were raised over the proposed changes, as well as some unchanged portions of the ordinance.

A particular stumbling block appears to be the idea of adding unpaid charges for the clean up of offending properties to the tax rolls.

Adams County Treasurer Kayla Meise said “that’s more of a notion” and has a meeting scheduled with city staff to discuss the idea further.

Meise said she is not aware of any other county in the state where such charges are added to the tax bill for a property.

If the proposal were to be approved, it would provide a relatively frictionless way for the city to place an assessment lien against the nuisance property, and recoup unpaid abatement costs with other taxes due on the property, she said. Without the assessment lien, the city could use a collection agency to attempt to recover the costs, but would have to initiate a court action in order to establish a lien against the property.

As the discussion continued, Mayor Linda Kadlec addressed the council. “The people of Ritzville want this,” she said. “It’s been in the works for two years... People shouldn’t have to live next to a pig pen.”

Discussion on the ordinance is expected to resume at the June 7 council meeting, after city staff and the county treasurer meet.

In other business:

• Public Works Director Dave Breazeale reported 93 appliances were collected during clean-up week and removed for scrap value, at no cost to the city.

• Bruce Benzel reported the Ritzville Golf Association has had discussions with a restaurateur from Moses Lake interested in operating the restaurant at the club house. The city and the association are still working on a contractual agreement for operation of the club house.