Clean-up cooperation sought

By Seth Schmidt

City of Tracy leaders are asking residents to clean up their yards and business establishments.  But they are also letting property owners know that a strict enforcement of the city public nuisance is planned, and that ordinance violations could result in a citation and fine.
A public notice listing provisions of the city’s public nuisance ordinance is published on page 12.  Nuisance ordinance information will also be included in a mailing of the city’s monthly utility bills.
City council members are forming a committee to assist the police department with ordinance enforcement.  Discussions have also begun for a spring clean-up day.  One possibility would be to offer a roll-off dumpster, where items can be brought for disposal.
The committee is expected to meet soon to develop specific recommendations for the full council to act upon.

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Council members discussed efforts to enforce the city’s anti-blight ordinance twice Monday night.
In the council’s 5:30 p.m. non-voting “work session,” Councilman Bill Chukuske said the committee’s purpose is to assist the police department in enforcing the public nuisance ordinance.  The committee, he stressed, is not an implication that the police department isn’t doing its job.  A committee, he said, might be in a better position to help people resolve issues if they aren’t physically able to tackle a clean-up job or can’t afford it.

For more on this article, see this week’s Headlight-Herald.