‘Some places in town are looking shabby,’ Weyauwega mayor says

By Angie Landsverk

How to deal with code enforcement will be a future topic of discussion in the city of Weyauwega.
“Some places in town are looking shabby. We need to politely say, ‘Clean up,’” Mayor Jack Spierings said during the Monday, Aug. 17, meeting of the common council.

The mayor cited a vacant house next to his as one example, saying while the owner of the property sees to it that the grass is mowed, there are trees growing out of the house.

Members of the common council then weighed in on the issue.

Ald. Mike Kempf said the city has ordinances and a building inspector.

When cars are sitting in yards and are not registered, the police department is able to handle those cases, he said.

“They can be sent an official letter from the city and told about the violation and what time limit they have,” Ald. Scott Rasmussen said in regard to code enforcement.

Ald. Bruce Brunner said, “No one in construction has the time to go all around (the city).”

The city needs to get someone to enforce the ordinances to hold people accountable, he said.

In some cases, garbage and tires are being left out for months, Brunner said.

Kempf said when council members see that happening in their wards, they may tell the property owner that large garbage items will be picked up the garbage hauler.

The property owner just has to contact the hauler to make arrangements.

Rasmussen said the mayor’s comments are referring to buildings which are vacant and need to be addressed, with some maybe needing to be condemned.

“I’m against hiring a code officer, but we’ve got to start somewhere,” Spierings said. “We’ll work on it.”

The issue will need to be discussed at the committee level.

“You have ordinances,” City Administrator Patrick Wetzel said. “First look at the ordinances and enforce the same for everybody.”

He said if the council does not identify either a seasonal or part-time employee to handle code enforcement in the city, they will “have to fit it into the existing staff. We can have that as part of the discussion, too.”