Columbia Heights residents need to attend the informational meetings that the city will be hosting, June 29, at 6:00 p.m. in Murzyn Hall, at 10:00 a.m. in the City Council Chambers and then again on July 20 at 6:00 p.m. at Murzyn Hall. All of this is to convince us that ‘we need’ to have this new point of sale inspection program passed in Columbia Heights. This is the very thing that was defeated last summer when over 150 citizens came forward and told the city this was a ridiculous ordinance. PLEASE attend these meetings; even if you don’t say anything, we need the numbers.
Comments that have been made by council members have been things like, “we need to pass this in spite of what the residents say because ‘the council’ understands this better than the residents do.” “They (citizens) didn’t understand what we were trying to pass. There was a lot of misinformation out there.” The message is still the same-you will not be able to sell your house without a city inspection and then repairs will have 90 days to be done. Repairs will have to be done even if you take your home off the market. Money can be placed in escrow but no house will be able to be sold as-is without an escrow fund in place. No more fixing things up on your own time. Call your neighbors, call your friends, and bring anyone that owns a home or plans on owning a home. We need to remind the city that our homes are our own property. This ordinance is still a ‘blank’ slate so they can change anything that they want so that we look like we are ‘misinformed”. (They already changed the dates on us!) We will need your help to defeat this again!
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As a city, we need to work at keeping our businesses, encourage their expansion, and encourage upgrades. We need to keep businesses informed of changes that are coming.
I would like to see more ordinances written with “sunset clauses”. This would give the ordinance a time limit on how long it could remain in effect. This would force the city to re-evaluate effectiveness and determine if it was still needed.
To what extent should the city work with community, church and school groups?
Given the state budget issues, there is the posibility of major changes in Local Government Aid (LGA) which cities like ours receive. What do you think the city council needs to do in this situation?
What’s you’re thoughts on getting the city to expand its reaching out to the community?