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ELKINS -- The Randolph County Commission unanimously approved the renewal for its Unsafe Buildings and Land Ordinance, but is leaving the door open to make any changes regarding the ordinance in the future.
The county ordinance is enforced by a committee that includes Commission President Cris Siler. When complaints are received about unsafe buildings in the county, the committee sends an inspector out to determine whether or not a property is deemed unsafe or hazardous.
"The committee gets several complaints and they list them in order of priority of when they were received," Commissioner David Kesling said during the most recent commission meeting. "They send an inspector out to determine if there is a violation or a health code issue, and that's when they start the process."
Siler said there has been some discussion about making changes to the ordinance because of miscommunication between the committee and the enforcement agency.
"I've been going over the ordinance with the Prosecuting Attorney (Michael Parker) and we want to make some different changes," Siler said. "But we decided to not make those changes at this time. We are going to get with the enforcement agency and get everybody on the same page with how the ordinance is actually supposed to be used. I believe we can get it fixed without making changes to the ordinance that would cripple us in other instances where we would have to use other parts of the ordinance. So I make a motion that we approve to renew the ordinance as is at this time. If we need to later, we can make adjustments if we see the need."
The enforcement agency is made up of the County Engineer, the County Health Officer, the County Litter Control Officer, two members at large selected by the Commission, and the Randolph County Sheriff.
"I don't think the enforcement agency was on the same page of what we were wanting out of this ordinance," said Siler. "It was being used in a manner which it shouldn't have been… We are not a county-wide homeowners association and that's not what the enforcement ordinance is supposed to do.
"I think we have everyone on the same page now and it seems to be working well. So I don't see any real need in making any changes at this time. However, we are still open to do that if we decide to."
Kesling said despite there being some small issues with the ordinance, it continues to serve the county well.
"There's been a lot of good things that have come out of the ordinance, and to get money from the state to tear down some structures, you have to have an ordinance in place," he said. "We've cleaned up a lot of unsafe properties and we are not out there to measure your grass and all that stuff. We use it to take down these structures that are unsafe or to help revitalize a community. And that's the intention of it."
Information about the county's Unsafe Buildings and Land Ordinance can be found at randolphcountycommissionwv.org. The next Randolph County Commission meeting is scheduled for Sept. 5 at 1:30 p.m.