Ordinance 2808 Voted Down

It was a packed house last night at Blackwell’s City Council meeting.

The town has been in debate about ordinance 2808, regarding housing inspections.

The ordinance was ultimately voted down.

Blackwell mayor, Mark Cordell says the ordinance dealt with making in-house inspections.

During the inspections they would have been looking at issues such as open bare wiring or sewage.

“The ordinance originally would go into effect if the property was vacant for 180 days, if the name on a utility account changed, if the utility account was shut off for none pay,” Cordell said. “You are required a cursory inspection, and we would target health and safety issues is what the intent of the ordinance was.”

Angered citizens have also started a petition to recall four councilmen and the mayor.

That petition was recalled invalid, as well.

“I think they are going to have to go back and redo the petition if they chose to move forward, but they are going to have to be very specific on what part of the charter that they felt we violated,” Cordell said.

Cordell says this topic is not laid to rest.

The city of Blackwell wants homes to be safe for kids and renters.

It is something they will continue to work on and hopefully find some middle ground.

“There was never any intention to invade peoples privacy and make them feel threatened,” Cordell said. “That was never the intent. I understand peoples anxiety, that’s the reason I had so many questions concerning the original ordinance and I just wasn’t ready to move forward on it until there was some changes made.”

The city is also considering creating a committee to explore other options.