Tracy: Nuisance laws apply equally

• Mayor Ken Tracy

Mayor Ken Tracy

Talk about it

Main Street businesses need to be held to the same standard as other properties in Mitchell, Mayor Ken Tracy said Tuesday. Tracy’s comments were directed toward 35 Main Street properties recently cited for nuisance violations by city Code Enforcement Officer Jeff Lanning. “I just think it’s a natural process,” Tracy said.

“We started identifying properties that need attention in residential areas, and moving to the business community is only fair. We’re not trying to pick on anybody; we’re just trying to get people to take pride in their properties and maintain them.”

Tracy said some repairs will be minimal — “a touch of paint here and there, some weeds that need pulling or junk that needs hauling” — while other corrections could be more costly.

Letters sent to violators give property owners 14 days to contact Lanning’s office and give them plans to correct the violations.

After recent public discussions on potentially renovating the Corn Palace, Lanning said he began focusing on corridors that lead to the Palace.

“As far as I’m concerned, Main Street is the major corridor to the Corn Palace,” he said.

Most of the violations cited are minor and cosmetic in nature, he added.

The Daily Republic obtained copies of the nuisance letters Tuesday from city government.

“Unsightly property” is a common box checked in the notices, as is the comment “Paint/refinish unfinished exterior surfaces on the building, doors and windows on all sides of the building. Repair or replace any broken windows.”

A photo of the area that needs correction is attached to each notice.

VFW Post 2750 at 105 N. Main St. received a notice with comments similar to those above.

“I thought the letter was kind of vague,” Post Commander Patrick Ziegler said, “but there wasn’t anything on it that we weren’t aware of.”

Ziegler said he plans to discuss the repairs with VFW membership on Tuesday.

“It’s all minor stuff, but we need to fix it,” Ziegler said, noting that his organization struggles month to month. “We recently repaired our sidewalks, and in October we plan to have our sign taken down and repaired.”

Ziegler’s major complaint with the notice was what he called its confrontational tone. He noted that the paperwork threatens fines or jail if violations are not addressed.

“We would have appreciated a more personal, neighborly approach,” he said.

Tracy is hopeful the notices will provide the impetus owners need to clean up properties.

“We’d also like to start the discussion of what can be done to improve some downtown buildings to make vacant space more productive,” Tracy said.

“We’d like to start the discussion, see where it leads, and see what can be done to improve the downtown business district.”

The following Main Street properties, cited by Mitchell Code Enforcement Officer Jeff Lanning, have 14 days to respond to the Code Office and discuss plans for correcting nuisance code violations:

• 100 W. Fifth Ave., MenProp LLC;

• 101 S. Main St., Slate Creek Properties LLC;

• 105 N. Main St. VFW Post 2750;

• 107 & 109 N. Main St., American Legion, Coacher-Goetsch Post 18;

• 108, 110 and 112 N. Main St., Jason Bates;

• 115 N. Main St., Palace City Pawn;

• 116 N. Main St., Lori Schoenfelder;

• 118 N. Main St., Gordon Bailey;

• 121 N. Main St., KL City Properties;

• 123 N. Main St., Larry and Linda Jirsa;

• 205 N. Main St., Lucky’s LLC;

• 206 N. Main St., Ed and Eileen Anderson;

• 207 N. Main St., Geyerman’s;

• 208 N. Main St., CPC Realty;

• 210 N. Main St., CPC Realty;

• 211 N. Main St., Michael’s Toggery;

• 212 N. Main St., Bonnie Struble;

• 213 N. Main St., James Johnson;

• 215 N. Main St., Prairie Breeze Gallery LLC, Kleve and Tonya Klingaman;

• 223 N. Main St., Western On Main LLC;

• 300 N. Main St., Slate Creek Properties;

• 301 & 303 N. Main St., Merlin Tingle;

• 308 N. Main St., James Johnson;

• 310 N. Main St., Dakota Hearing Institute;

• 317 N. Main St., Dan Hauser and Brenda Olesen;

• 320 N. Main St., Chad and Carma Popp;

• 322 N. Main St., James and Roberta Davidson;

• 401 N. Main St., World of Fabrics;

• 405 N. Main St., Stearn Promotions;

• 413 N. Main St., RJA Inc.;

• 415 N. Main St., Tim and Sherry Hines, RJA Properties LLC;

• 417 N. Main St., Slate Creek Properties/ Glatt Investments;

• 505 N. Main St., Reimnitz Properties;

• 511 N. Main St., Jamison Enterprises; and

• 512 N. Main St., Bryan Raldolph/Ross Trust.

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