By Dave Fidlin
Correspondent
With last year’s discovery of emerald ash borer still at the forefront of many peoples’ minds in Whitewater, a proposed ordinance outlining what steps can be taken in potentially hazardous situations is under consideration.
Council member Ken Kidd asked to have an item placed on the Common Council’s Feb. 18 agenda with regard to handling perceived hazardous situations on private property.
Kidd presented a number of possible scenarios for the ordinance, beyond diseased trees that could be susceptible to such highly contagious conditions as emerald ash borer.
Kidd said his suggested ordinance could apply to other scenarios as well, including sinkholes on private property and an upper balcony that might be structurally unsound.
“The city could take on (remediation) and charge the cost to the property owner,” Kidd said.
City Attorney Wally McDonnell said the city already has a number of ordinances on its books that address the scenarios Kidd outlined.
“I could pull them all together, with a table of contents,” McDonnell said. “There are ordinances that require property owners do work to fix a situation. If they don’t comply, citations can be issued.”
The council directed McDonnell to pull together all of the existing documents and present his findings at a later date.
Upon completion, the plans call for the council to review what already is on the city’s books and possibly direct McDonnell to write additional ordinances to strengthen the city’s oversight of private property nuisance issues.
In July, the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (WDATCP) confirmed emerald ash borer beetles had infested at least one tree just outside Whitewater’s municipal border. In the immediate aftermath, all areas of Walworth and Jefferson counties were put under quarantine.
As part of the quarantine, WDATCP put in place a stipulation that all wood products could not leave the counties’ borders as part of an effort to mitigate the spread of infestation of counties without a trace of the beetle.
