Wellsville's Claims, Rules & Ordinace Committee

Tuesday - April 20: Wellsville Council's Claims, Rules & Ordinance Committee met Tuesday at Village Hall. Present at the meeting was Committee Members Sue Haugh and Joe Soldano. Also present was Village Administrator Jim Saracco. Haugh chaired the meeting in the absence of the Committee Chairman. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss several ideas and suggestions.

The first topic was the proposed ordinance amendment to increase the number of paid called-out Volunteer firemen from the current 25 to 30. WFD Chief Bill Smith requested the increase about three Council meetings ago. At that meeting Council voted to make the change and ordered in legislation. Since then Village officials have been furiously trying to locate the old ordinance without any luck. Best guess estimate was this ordinance was in late 1971. That was way before Village ordinances were codified.

With having no luck finding it, the Committee will ask the Village Solicitor to write a new ordinance superseding any and all previous ordinances pertaining to paid call-outs.

Second item on the agenda was the ORC law allowing Village officials to spend up to $25,000 without getting the full Council's approval and bypassing the bidding process. Legally that amount can not be lowered by ordinance but all three present at the meeting expressed belief that $25 grand is a big amount for a Village the size of Wellsville. Haugh said she would liked to be "kept in the loop" on expensive projects and said that for informational purposes that amount should be a much smaller dollar figure. The only exception would be life threatening projects such as a sewer collapse creating a large sink hole in the middle of a street.

Saracco advised that he first goes to the Fiscal Officer to check if funds are available for any project before proceeding. Soldano agreed it was worth looking into but questioned how Council would go about getting it into an ordinance. It was agreed to do more digging into what can be done. Haugh advised she would return to Andy Beech's office to see what can be done legally before asking to order in legislation.

Item #3 was the age of mobile homes being used to replace older ones. There are two problems with the ordinance on this as it presently reads. It now reads that trailers can be replaced with ones as old as the last one and the ordinance only applies to trailer parks. Saracco advised that Village ordinance on double wides now state that once they are anchored to the base pad they are considered regular homes but can only be replaced with ones no older than two years from date of manufacture. He also said that mobile homes left vacant after six months can not be reoccupied as a home. However there is no provision for them being used as storage sheds, etc. There was also discussion on a grandfather clause being needed when amending the present ordinance. The Committee agree to ask for legislation changing the wording to include all mobile homes throughout the Village and replacements can not be older than five years old. Once the wording is worked out that will be submitted to full Council.

Fourth on the list was Ordinance 94.02 - Section C. This section covers litter which includes garbage, junk, etc. Members of the committee would like to change the warning and fines portion to more stringent language that spells out what is to be done. It is their hope to have guidelines that would leave no uncertainty in the step by step process of dealing with landlords or owners that have unsightly places needing to be cleaned up.

Village Administrator Saracco says he now gives them a personal call once he checks out a place. In two days if nothing is done he sends a letter informing them they are in violation of the ordinance. Presently that gives them another 15 days. After that they can be cited into Magistrate Court. The Committee is considering knocking the 15 days down to five and possibly imposing progressive fines into the ordinance. They have to get a legal opinion on by-passing Magistrate Court before proceeding with this.

Uncut grass and weeds were discussed. The Village is plagued with many properties such as empty lots or foreclosed homes that are neglected. Some communities specify the length of grass that is permissible before their ordinances require it to be cut. Saracco suggested that section be left as is for now and the matter was tabled. He said that in many instances the owners are out of town residents but they are continually pursuing violators. Soldano remarked that when he was on the Property Committee he sometimes called owners as a courtesy and found that most people get "right on it". It was decided that enforcement of the ordinance is what is basically needed.

Finally fences that are falling over, have pickets or whole sections missing and unpainted was discussed. Putting specific wording into the ordinance was thought worthy of more consideration. The very last subject brought up was store fronts that have become indoor junk yards. It was mentioned that it was unfair to businesses in town that maintain their places only to have a next door building look so unattractive. It distracts their businesses and the Village as a whole. This matter will also be worked on to iron out some more details.

Also being considered for more research are nudity laws & ordinances, Zoning fees for new business signs, advanced notice being required on projects being planned by volunteer groups, rental inspection fees, and nuisance laws. Someone is planning on a new ball park in Hammonds Park. The Tree Board is arbitrarily planting trees without notifying residents. No one at Village Hall was advised on either of them.

Did you know that the strip of grass between your sidewalk and the curb is actually Village property? That was surprising to us.

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