{"id":153105,"date":"2022-04-12T03:37:50","date_gmt":"2022-04-12T08:37:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=153105"},"modified":"2022-04-13T03:42:30","modified_gmt":"2022-04-13T08:42:30","slug":"council-talks-about-parking-lots-blighted-properties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2022\/04\/12\/council-talks-about-parking-lots-blighted-properties\/","title":{"rendered":"VW Council discusses parking lots, blight"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commercial parking lots and blighted properties seemed to be the focus of Monday night\u2019s meeting of Van Wert City Council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Properties and Equipment Committee Chairman David Stinnett brought up parking lots last month and revisited the issue and said it’s time to hold property owners accountable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Van Wert Mayor Ken Markward gives various updates during Monday’s City Council meeting. Scott Truxell\/Van Wert independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI guess the year 2022 is going to be clean up year for Van Wert because we\u2019ve been doing a lot of cleaning and I would like to take a look at parking lots inside our city,\u201d Stinnett said. \u201cThey\u2019re in very bad condition and it\u2019s bad that we have to force pride in our community, but I feel that we\u2019re at a point now where we need to take another step.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We\u2019re asking our citizens to clean up, we\u2019re cleaning up our blighted properties, it\u2019s time to take another step and ask building owners to fix their parking lots,” he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stinnett asked Law Director John Hatcher to draft legislation that would clarify and help enforce what\u2019s already on the books. Hatcher mentioned the penalty for failing to comply is currently an unclassified misdemeanor punishable by a $500 a fine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDo we charge them for every day?\u201d Hatcher asked. \u201cFor commercial property that might be the only response. If it\u2019s months at a time that\u2019s potentially a big issue.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hatcher indicated a draft form of legislation will likely be ready in time for city council\u2019s next meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Owners of blighted properties could hear from the city this year. Council members saw a draft letter that would go out to those property owners. It would require them to submit a plan to correct the problem and complete the work within six months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something that will allow us and those people that have those properties to do something with them,” Health, Service and Safety Committee Chairman Bill Marshall said. \u201cIf they decide they want to fix the property we\u2019re willing to give them the time to do it, it\u2019s not like they have to have it done tomorrow. We\u2019ll certainly be very lenient in allowing them to correct the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Revisions will be made to the draft letter before it goes out. A dozen such properties fall into the blighted category, but it’s expected only two letters will go out at a time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During his report to council, Hatcher addressed an email that was sent to Council President Jerry Mazur about fourth amendment rights being violated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey stated they believe the police department is violating individuals fourth amendment rights by taking photographs of their yards for the junk ordianances,\u201d Hatcher stated. \u201cI would disagree \u2013 I think this person is taking a small blip off of someone\u2019s website and acting like that applies directly to what\u2019s going to what\u2019s going on here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot more to it than that person believes. They\u2019re investigating a violation of city ordinance so they have probable cause to be there to take photographs. It\u2019s not like they\u2019re going into people\u2019s garage or into people\u2019s outbuildings or looking in windows. They\u2019re there for a specific purpose and they don\u2019t exceed that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

City Auditor Martha Balyeat told council members that first quarter general fund revenues were up between $90,000 and $100,000, and Safety-Service Director Jay Fleming said the city recently sold a street sweeper for $85,000, or $25,000 more than the minimum bid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During his brief report, Mayor Ken Markward offered additional congratulations to Brett Schumm, who was recently named Firefighter\/EMT of the Year. He also reminded council members that city hall will close at 11:30 a.m. for Good Friday and he noted city taxes and water bills are due by Monday, April 18.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other business, council members agreed to re-appoint Mark Schumm to the Van Wert Area Economic Development Corporation board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Monday night\u2019s meeting was live streamed on the city\u2019s website. Future meetings may be live streamed, depending on a price quote for necessary equipment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before the meeting a public information session was held to answer questions about the national gas aggregation issue on the May 3 ballot. Only a handful of people were in attendance and Amy Hoffman of Palmer Energy Associates pointed out it\u2019s identical to electric aggregation, which has been in place for years. She also said if the issue passes, residents can opt-in or out at any time and she said if natural gas prices suddenly rise, those already enrolling will have their rates locked in at the previous rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next meeting of Van Wert City Council will be at 6:30 p.m. Monday, April 25, in Council Chambers on the second floor of the Municipal Building, 515 E. Main St.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent editor Commercial parking lots and blighted properties seemed to be the focus of Monday night\u2019s meeting of Van Wert City Council. Properties and Equipment Committee Chairman David Stinnett brought up parking lots last month and revisited the issue and said it’s time to hold property owners accountable. \u201cI guess the year 2022 is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-153105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-23 17:38:37","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153105\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}