By Michael Heins
Members of the Havre City Council Ordinance Committee met Tuesday night to review more outdated ordinances, mostly from the turn of the last century and no longer have any relevance today.
Committee members include Chairwoman Emily Mayer Lossing, Gary Schubert, Jack Brandon and Tom Farnham.
Many of these ordinances have been taken over under state statutes or the state has repealed them. These ordinances are old and outdated such as a 1913 ordinance that made spitting on the side walk a misdemeanor.
Some other examples are ordinances against littering on a public way or destroying public property.
"They are just taking up space in our ordinance book," Mayer Lossing said.
Another ordinance covering trailer parks is covered under state laws so the committee sought to repeal this ordinance as well. Water and sewer are provided up to the trailer parks and after that it comes under state law.
The committee passed a tentative motion to repeal these ordinance but the council members will still check with City Clerk Lowell Swenson before proceeding with a permanent decision on these ordinances.
Driving under the influence of alcohol, drug abuse are also covered under state laws, so there is no longer any need for these laws to be covered by city ordinance.
A tentative motion was passed but the committee, but they will still check with Police Chief Mike Shortell on these ordinances and reference state law.
City Engineer Ron Bastin brought up the issue of zoning in the Havre area.
"Havre is not moving like Bozeman," Bastin said. "We don't want to make things difficult for the resident."
Bastin also brought up the issue of the Corps of Engineers and open space areas around Havre.
Bastin said the annexation of agricultural land and the possibility of keeping the zoning the same until it changes hands was another issue he brought up.
"The city does not want to run people out of business by suddenly changing the ordinance," he said.
