By Michael S. Hoey
correspondent
The Town of Delavan board approved on Aug. 20 an amendment to its code enforcement inspection ordinance in an effort to get more people to pay their citations. Now if residents ignore their citations, they could face additional fines of up to $500.
According to Supervisor Bill Thummel, many residents choose to ignore citations issued by Allison Schwark, the town’s code enforcement officer. That forces Schwark to return to the residence repeatedly in an effort to get compliance with the ordinance that was violated.
“All we want is for people to comply as soon as they get the citation, not drag it out,” Thummel said. “It is not the intent for this to be a revenue generator, we just want people to comply.”
The amended ordinance now states that if Schwark returns to verify compliance and finds no effort was made to do so, an additional $50 citation will be issued. If the issue was resolved, no citation will be issued. A second inspection without resolution will result in a $200 citation. A third and any subsequent inspections without a resolution will result in a $500 citation.
Town Attorney Rich Scholze wanted it to be clear in the amended ordinance that if the issue is resolved, no citation will be issued.
Schwank serves as the code enforcement officer in Whitewater and Burlington as well. She was asked if similar citation models there have resulted in more compliance with ordinances. She said it has.
For the full story, please see the print edition of the Delavan Enterprise.
