LEESBURG – Revisions to Leesburg’s refuse ordinance was a topic of discussion during the Town Council meeting Monday.
The Council has been working on rewording the current ordinance since April because one of the problems the town has is people having excessive trash and other debris on their properties.
Councilman Tom Moore said the current refuse ordinance dates back to 1972. Council President Christina Archer said the original ordinance was passed in 1939.
Moore suggested getting rid of things in the ordinance that are no longer needed. One of those things is the burning of leaves and trash since it’s all ready illegal to burn things in Indiana.
Moore also suggested changing aspects of the ordinance that referred to the town marshal as the designee to enforce the ordinance since Leesburg no longer has a town marshal. He suggested replacing town marshal with a designee and not specifying who that designee is.
He also suggested changing the ordinance when it says the person served a nuisance warning doesn’t take care of the problem within 10 days, the town could proceed to do so and keep track of the expenses. Moore suggested changing the timeframe from 10 days to 30 days.
Councilman Doug Jones asked if someone fencing off their property is going to change anything with the ordinance.
Street Commissioner Craig Charlton said the town is not going to get around the fact that if there’s a pile of waste on someone’s property, it’s going to rot and smell. It’s going to be a health issue and going to be a nuisance.
Moore suggested to the Council they send any changes they’d like to see to him because he’d like to approve the ordinance in the next few months.
In other business, Charlton said the street department cleaned up damage from the July 23 storm.
He said he had an issue with cleaning up storm damage. When people put out items like tree limbs that were supposedly damage from the storm, he said people also put out things that weren’t related to the storm. He said it always happens and you can always identify what is blown down and what is cut down.
He said the town will probably have to address it at some point because cleanup can be expensive.
Jones said he saw a couple put out items that were not storm damage. The town does storm damage cleanup as a courtesy to get storm damaged items out of town. The town will take the storm damage, but they don’t want to take additional things.
Jones said he hasn’t seen the bill for the storm damage cleanup yet with the additional help the town had to hire, but he said he was sure it wasn’t going to be cheap. With the expense the town has, Jones said they don’t want any more.
Moore said there possibly could be a time when the town cleanup day is expanded from once a year to twice a year.
Jones what has made it an issue is there have been two 10-year storms in two weeks and there has been a lot of brush, as well as people taking advantage of the situation.
Jones said the town can’t pay for everything. Archer said under normal circumstance, it isn’t unreasonable to expect people to find a way to get rid of their storm damage. Jones said it isn’t even the storm damage he’s concerned about. He has plants in his yard and he disposes of those in a manner that doesn’t require someone to pick it up. Jones said he doesn’t want the town to be in the shrubbery removal business.
Moore suggested putting wording about it in the town’s refuse ordinance.
Also, the Council:
• Heard an update about the town’s K21 Health Foundation project. Archer said last month, she informed the Council updated estimates would have to be submitted to the foundation. Charlton said he has not received any quotes yet, but would give the Council any quotes he gets once he gets them.
• Heard from Charlton six 25-mile-an-hour signs were put up on Old Ind. 15. Charlton said there have been some complaints about people speeding along Old Ind. 15. Jones said he would make sure the officer that does traffic control for the town is aware of the situation.
• Approved part of Van Buren Street to be closed on Sept. 10 near Town Hall.
Jones said Mike Beezley, pastor of both Clunette United Methodist Church and Atwood Aldersgate United Methodist Church, and a couple churches got together and they want to put on a music festival. Food trucks will be available.
Charlton said he believes the fire department will be involved so the department will bring some trucks to the festival and ice cream will be sold. Kids activities will available. Charlton said the music will be religious.
• Heard an update from Kosciusko Economic Development Corporation CEO Alan Tio about what KEDCO was doing, including its housing and talent initiatives.
