Kidder council discusses manufactured homes
The Kidder City Council meet Sept. 1st for their monthly meeting. Council members, Steve Grooms, Ken Streu, Ray Garton and Christy Bratcher were present along with Mayor George Bauer, Clerk Richard Evans and Code Enforcement Officer, Christy Eden-Browder.
It was brought up by Alderman Garton that Charlie Pugh had been overpaid, but Clerk Evans said that Charlie repaid the overage by adding it to his sewer bill.
Melvin McFee of wastewater management stated that everything within his department is working great. He is currently researching the cost of a PH meter which will be required by the state. He estimated the cost to be between $800-$1,400. McFee said the meter will need to be calibrated and state certified each year.
Christy Eden-Browder, Kidder’s Code Enforcement Officer, stated that Dale Crabb has requested a building permit to put up a 15’ fence next to his building to hide the view of tires on his property.
She also spoke of a property owner who did some cleanup on their property at Linden and 5th but had not completed cleanup on another property located north of the Margaret Innis property and that the owner had left town. She advised the city, should they decide to do an administrative warrant, that the court date would be in October.
Eden-Browder said the county provided a map of properties and legal descriptions which should speed up work in regard to researching property information.
It was asked by a citizen if the city would consider restricting haying close to residences. The reason for this is when tall grass is mowed, the pests have nowhere to go but to nearby homes.
The subject of manufactured homes was again discussed. Eden-Brower reminded the board that a while back they had amended the manufactured housing ordinance by removing the specific requirement of a permanent foundation and changed it to say “per the manufacturer’s recommendations.” She said that this was too vague and that something more specific needed to be added back into the ordinance.
Eden-Browder quoted the Department of Housing’s definition of a permanent foundation as being, “Permanent foundations must be constructed of durable materials; i.e. concrete, mortared masonry, or treated wood – and be site-built. It shall have attachment points to anchor and stabilize the manufactured home to transfer all loads, herein defined, to the underlying soil or rock.”
Christy Bratcher made a motion to change the ordinance back to how it was originally written which described a permanent foundation as “a foundation of solid concrete or cement blocks sealed together with concrete, or of a permanent masonry, set atop a footer of poured concrete at least 3’ deep.” Eden Brower said that there were two reasons a manufactured home would be put on a permanent foundation, 1) for safety, and 2) it would then be classified as real property opposed to it being classified as a vehicle (which increases the property value and increases taxes). Alderman Streu said that he believed using the standard set by the Housing Dept. would be a good standard to use. It was clarified by Eden-Browder that the permanent foundation was the 3’ buried footer underneath the trailer on which it was anchored. It was determined by the board that the problem was about the outside wall or skirting, and that needed to be decided on as to what was acceptable. The previous ordinance also required a footer underneath the outside wall to be made of concrete or cinder blocks. Clerk Evans said this was to make sure the trailer would be made real property and that they were going to stay, and people were not just going to move in and move out. He said the city didn’t have any other control on the placement of trailers as the city had no zoning ordinance. He challenged the board to look at communities the same size as Kidder referring to trailers in Jamison, Coffey and Ludlow. He said they are still there, the people are gone, and the trailers are abandoned. He suggested if the council was going to redo the ordinance it needs to be put before the people again.
Eden-Browder suggested the board draft a new bill according to the mindset of the council and put it before the public. The board agreed to table the subject until the next council meeting.
Council discussed who was responsible for maintaining city property. Alderman Garton told council that he believes that the city should maintain all of the city right of ways. Eden-Browder said that the current ordinance says that the property owner is only responsible for maintaining their property to the edge of the ditch and the city is responsible for maintaining all of the ditch up to the edge of a property. Clerk Evans asked if the city was financially able to maintain all of their property. He said from the city’s passage of the last tax levy, they will only have $19,000 from which to work. It was brought up that the city could bring in inmates to work. Eden Brower said there are also others that need community service that might be able to do the work.
Dale Crabb asked to be put on the agenda regarding his building permit. He asked council if he could have an extension on his building permit. He was under the impression that he would not be granted an extension. Eden-Browder said when his building permit was first issued it was agreed upon that he would also work on cleaning up his property. Since then Crabb had done a lot of cleanup work. Crabb said he couldn’t spend all his time working on cleanup, as he had to make a living too. Alderman Streu asked Crabb if he owned the property and said, “I’m of the mind if you wanted a building permit and wanted to build something that’s in between the codes, I’ll vote for your building permit every time, this is America.” It was agreed by the board to extend Crabb’s building permit until the end of September.
