Council will only wait so long for improvements

A city council member in Grand Coulee says he’d rather not have to pass an ordinance that forces property owners to get their commercial sites up to standards, but he will push for it if no progress is made.

Tom Poplawski said at the city’s last council meeting July 15 that he is aware of arguments for and against passing an ordinance with punitive measures designed to encourage owners of empty or unsightly buildings to clean up.

“I agree with all of it, actually, but neither one has produced any change,” he said. “And so we’re still stuck in the same dilemma that we’ve been sitting in for years with the storefronts and some of the occupied buildings that aren’t being opened.”

Poplawski introduced the idea in June with some research from other cities that have passed such measures.

“I’m not really ready yet to move that we provide an ordinance and go that direction,” he said at the July meeting. “And I would like to hear from folks that will actually think, OK, we hear you’re doing this. We’re going to change our behavior. … I’d love to hear them step up and say, ‘Yeah, we get the point. We’ve heard that the city wants us to be better stewards of what we have around us, and we haven’t been, and so therefore we need to be, but we’d like to do it without you putting a fine on us or a fee on us, or a register or anything.”

Poplawski said he is not against doing but it” takes staff time for them to do that; that I am against.”

“I’ll deliver them,” volunteered fellow Councilmember Janet Christy.

Poplawski said he wasn’t ready to propose an ordinance yet, but “but I’ll only wait so long.”