Hill County Commission tables social host ordinance discusssion

The Hill County Commissioners Thursday again tabled the matter of a social host ordinance.

The commission tabled the agenda item without discussion, with the members saying afterward they want to edit the ordinance before bringing it up for discussion again.

“The main concern is they can hold individuals liable even though they don’t know there’s something happening on their land,” Commissioner Mark Peterson said after the meeting. “When you get into the rural areas, farmers lease land from out of state people. They don’t always lease or own the land next to their home ... kids who get out of sight, they hold a party there, they get raided. Basically, it says (land owners) might be held liable.”

Advocates for the ordinance at several meetings have said that is not how the ordinances have been used historically — Havre has had one in place for a decade — and that it is aimed at people who host parties and provide alchohol to minors and then claim they didn’t know about the party.

Susan Brurud of Substance Abuse and Misuse Coalition and Hill County Youth Reporting Center Coordinator Matt Erdel have told the commissioners at previous meetings officers don’t, and in many cases can’t, bring charges against people who obviously couldn’t have known or didn’t know a party was going on on their land, but rather can against people who couldn’t have been unaware of such an event and then claim otherwise.

But Peterson said Thursday that people who don’t know parties are going on could be charged.

“That’s not really fair to (land owners) because, quite frankly, the kids are pretty adaptive finding pockets here and there. There’s always been parties out in the Bear Paws in the park and we don’t always know they’re there,” he added.

Peterson said the county could be held liable for that kind of a party. He said, generally state law enforcement wouldn’t do that but they still have the option to do it. 

“You can’t always determine what law enforcement officials how they’re going to view things. They do normally keep an open mind, and understand the situation, but the unknown is what’s bothering a lot of people. If you’re in the city and it’s in your backyard, you pretty much know something’s going on. So that’s kind of the main gist of it right now,” Peterson said.

The ordinance had been tabled last week as well. There were no edits made to the ordinance so it will be discussed next week, Commissioner Diane McLean said.

Peterson clarified after the meeting that when an agenda item is tabled, it is indefinite.

“We want to be able to take the time to look at it and see if there is a way we can reword it. To make it palatable. … A motion has to be made to take it off the table. So it could be next week, it could be next month, it could be three or four months from now before the commission might take action on it,” Peterson said.

Senior centers reopening

The commission talked about its work with the Council on Aging to reopen North Central Senior Citizens Center in Havre and the senior citizen center in Rudyard.

“(Council on Aging Director Don Kenny) indicated that he wanted to come and visit with us about this plan. We did not get communication from Don regarding this. We were not able to meet with him this week. So, we will try to meet with the director and see if there are still ongoing plans to open,” McLean said.

In its weekly release, printed on Page A6, Society, in today’s edition of Havre Daily News, the North Central Senior Citizens Center reported that, due to the increase of COVID-19 cases in Hill County, the opening of the center will be delayed until this once again stabilizes.

“The reopening plan has been taken to the commissioners for their perusal,” the release said.

The commission also approved an Immunization Program Task Order for the amount of $8,971. The task order came from Hill County Health Director and Health Officer Kim Berg.

McLean said the funding is used to pay part of the cost of nurses at the Hill County Health Department providing immunizations.

The commission also approved an amended motion for the allocation of alcohol tax funds to both Bullhook Community Health Center and Bear Paw Recovery Center.