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Elkins City Council eyes new property ordinances

ELKINS — City Council on Thursday approved on first reading a pair of ordinances to further strengthen the city’s ability to deal with nuisance properties that, officials believe, attract criminal activity.

The measures were discussed during a 7 p.m. meeting at City Hall, and both were approved by unanimous vote. Each ordinance will require a second reading.

The first ordinance establishes penalties for owners who allow criminal activity on their property.

The ordinance establishes that any premises used for prostitution, illegal gambling, drug or other illegal activity is a nuisance property. If two or more of these offenses occur within a 12-month period and the penalty for the offense is a year or more, and if the owner or manager fails to abate the problem within 30 days of being notified, that owner or manager can be subject to a fine of $100 to $1,000.

Under the proposed ordinance, the police chief or other authorized representative of the city may issue an order of abatement requiring the defendant to take measures to prevent the recurrence of illegal activity. The order also may authorize the issuance of search warrants reasonably calculated to determine whether the nuisance has been abated or whether the order of the court has been obeyed, according to the ordinance.

Every day an owner violates the ordinance is considered a separate offense.

“Basically, if two felonies occur within a 12-month period, we can meet with the owner to rectify the situation,” Councilman Mark Scott said.

Councilman Robert Woolwine was concerned about landlords who may not be aware of criminal activity on their rental property.

“If I’m a landlord and I have tenants doing something they shouldn’t, how am I going to know?” he said.

That’s where the order of abatement comes in, City Attorney Gerry Roberts said. Property owners would receive notice of the problem and would be fined only if they don’t do anything about the problem, she said.

“You only get a fine if you fail to do what you need to do,” she said.

Councilman Rhett Dusenbury noted the ordinance may actually give landlords more incentive to evict problem tenants.

The other ordinance effectively requires owners to hire night watchmen for abandoned properties that are not reasonably secured, as determined by the city. Failure to do so would result in a fine of $100 to $1,000, according to the ordinance.

The ordinances are part of an effort to combat an increase in drugs and violent crime in the city, officials said.

“We’ve got a lot of vacant properties that, for whatever reason, the owners have not secured,” Scott said.

Woolwine wondered if the ordinance applied to incompleted construction.

“What if I’m building a house?” he said.

Roberts said the ordinance could, in fact, apply to such a scenario if the property was not properly secured.

The city officials tasked with enforcing this ordinance, such as city police officers, would have to determine if the unsecured structure was a problem.

“The police are going to be the arbiters in this situation; they would have discretion to use this based on their own judgment,” Roberts said. “Again, it’s only when people choose to ignore or not cooperate that we would have the authority.”

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