Before writing that ticket...

Pine Haven’s council faces tough choices as they begin enforcing the ordinance regarding inoperable vehicles on town streets.

Mayor Karla Brandenburg opened the conversation at a recent workshop, “We just had a ticket issued and any time we issue any tickets… If we start issuing tickets, we start paying a judge and we pay a judge $125 an hour from the minute he leaves Gillette until the minute he gets back to Gillette. We’re going to have to come up with something on how to handle this and I think it’s going to have to be one-on-one type of communication because it’s going to cost us a fortune to do this.”

Councilwoman Emily Smith expressed her resolve to do something about the situation, saying, “Finding out and taking stock where the problems exist and trying to talk to those people and get a little tough on it…wholly and equally, friendly but firm.”

Councilwoman Kristy Speed asked for clarification on the mayor’s seeming hesitancy to abide by the ordinance, saying, “It’s an ordinance. What do we do, just take out the ordinance?”

Brandenburg concurred with the necessity of following the municipal law and treating everyone the same, but advocated the need to seek an audience with the code violators individually before issuing citations.

“We go talk to them and try to solve it. It is an ordinance and I agree, we need to try to accommodate it, but we also have to do it in the most efficient way, I think,” she said.

“If we start issuing tickets and towing vehicles, it’s going to cost us a fortune…How much money are we as a town willing to spend to accomplish this?”

Addressing the citation already issued, Brandenburg opined, “I think if I had gone to the person instead of issuing the fine, we could have solved this.”

Smith voiced her skepticism about avoiding legal action entirely, saying, “We can issue fines…but we can’t take the court out of the process.”

The group considered and discussed a variety of avenues to work with the residents in violation including third party mediation and addressing each citizen in defiance of the code instead of only responding to complaints.

The council plans to have a list of addresses with issues throughout the entire township compiled by May 1 to be addressed.