LEESBURG – The town of Leesburg is looking at rewording its parking ordinance to have more enforcement behind it.
The town has a parking ordinance stating it shall be unlawful for any person to park a motor vehicle on any street of the town between the hours of 3 and 5 a.m.
At Monday’s meeting, Councilman Tom Moore said, given the recent history with the number of parking violations, it has “prompted further thought. We never had, since 1982, a very good conclusion for an enforcement arm in this particular ordinance.”
During February’s meeting, town attorney Nick Jacobs said there were three individuals that were cited several times for violating the parking ordinance. Former town attorney Verne Landis sent them demand letters in November to see if it could be resolved. The three people didn’t respond so lawsuits were filed against them.
Monday, Jacobs said two of those cases have been resolved and paperwork just needs to be filled out. One of the three cases is still outstanding with a hearing on April 22.
Councilman Doug Jones, who was not present at Monday’s meeting, had sent an email about possibly changing the wording of the parking ordinance. Moore said he agreed with Jones it was time to change the ordinance.
Moore said Jones’ suggestion was, instead of a fine for each violation, the town change the violation to a possibly a three-strike rule. The suggestion would be the first violation would be a warning, the second violation would be a fine and the third violation would result in the car being towed.
Jacobs said he doesn’t think it’s a bad idea to make the change, but since it would different from what the town currently has, he suggested maybe for the first few months, the town could put a little note telling people of the repercussions of getting further violations. It would get people’s attention.
Street Commissioner Craig Charlton said notification of that first notification should include the ramifications. If someone gets a warning, it should state it’s a warning, and if parking violations continue what it would entail.
Moore said the change needs further discussion. He said he’d like to see it on April’s agenda. He also said the community needs to be able to provide input.
Also, the town of Leesburg may be closing in on wrapping up on getting law enforcement to help the town with traffic control.
The town had been looking at third-party insurance to cover traffic control by the Claypool Police Department.
Moore said the town has found a way to add the traffic control as a rider to the town’s existing insurance policy. With this change, the agreement will be between the town of Leesburg and Claypool Town Marshal Ben Sanders, he said. The town of Claypool won’t be involved in the agreement anymore.
If Sanders decides to go forward with the decision, the contract will be worked on, he said.
In other business, the Council:
• Approved a $3,000 agreement of services with Kosciusko Economic Development Corporation to be paid in two payments upon receipt of invoice.
• Heard an update on the sewer rate.
Jacobs said Baker Tilly has not given him any updates on the sewer rate.
Clerk-Treasurer Mike Searfoss said some information has been sent over to Baker Tilly and the company is starting to go through that information and compile the sewer rate report.
