It’s been a busy couple of weeks. Although the winter season seems far away (especially with a 109 heat index this week!), some maintenance and preparation on the town trucks is already occurring. There was also some grading, patching, street sign installation, and more. Someone(s)? has been tearing up the intersections on Deer and Griffith (90th & 100th) costing us quite a bit of lost time this week. This damage required a dump spread of road base. Please, if you see someone causing damage, call the non-emergency # of the Portage County Sheriff Department at 715-346-1400 and report.
At the request of Emergency Management Director Bob Weinert, Clerk Stefanie Schlapa, Public Works employee Marty Rutz, First Responders Rob Mateer and Jim Yetter, and I met to begin filling out a questionnaire regarding Emergency Response to Disasters. All Portage Co. municipalities are going through this exercise with hopes of completing it by year’s end. Once completed we will have a handbook of emergency resources to guide us if ever needed. Please let Stefanie know if you have a special skill set or equipment that might aid our residents in case of a disaster.
An apology is due to residents who misunderstood the Board’s intentions of a DRAFT Nuisance Ordinance. Between local gossip and social media, we’ve heard everything from “soup to nuts” about what is suddenly going to be disallowed. This misinformation is very unfortunate as the DRAFT that was provided by our legal counsel is only a template for the many possible items that could be included in an ordinance of this type. Perhaps we will end up with nothing in the end. The following prepared statement was read at the Plan Commission meeting this week. Hopefully, that may clear up any misunderstandings that have occurred:
“In response to concerns raised from members of the public, the Town has been working with property owners to address conditions on their property, including excessive accumulation of junk vehicles, debris, and trash. The Chair and the Zoning Administrator sent letters a couple of months ago to those residents where they have received complaints. Some of these are consistent complaints and some within subdivisions. As we’ve worked with property owners, we’ve also identified that although some property owners are amenable to working in clean-up of their property, others are not, so we asked our Attorney to prepare an ordinance to assist. The Attorney prepared a comprehensive nuisance ordinance, so we could see what one might look like, and then review what, if anything in such an ordinance would be appropriate for the Town of Grant. We recognize that citizen input is important and have planned a future public hearing and input opportunity to receive the public’s comment. Understand that no draft of an ordinance has been finalized, and the Board hasn’t had an opportunity to provide feedback for adjusting the draft or deciding if a nuisance ordinance is even appropriate for the Town of Grant. Any information that has been communicated thus far that the ordinance draft that was shared is a final draft for consideration is untrue. Remember, the Town website and newsletters are the official sources of information for Town of Grant, not social media.”