Can the city of Page clean up its act?

No doubt, the area around Page is spectacular. Nature did her part.

No one, except maybe Mr. Magoo, considers the town of Page beautiful. The first impression is not impressive. Run down buildings. Junk cars. Falling down fences. Weeds. Trashy yards. Graffitti. Yuck.

City council is trying to do something about it.

The current leaders want to make Page a more attractive place to live and visit.

So councilor Vida Makowski has been tasked with updating Chapter 9 of the City Code. This involves health, safety and sanitation, including public nuisance and property maintenance.

According to Makowski, the original ordinance was obsolete. “We wanted to put more teeth into it,” she says.

There were two public meetings about the ordinance. Many good suggestions were made and included in the updated version.

“As far as enforcement is concerned, we want to start out easy by simply asking people to make changes,” Makowski says.

The ordinance states that the first step of enforcement is “informal intervention with the responsible party.”

After that, there are four progressively more punitive steps. Violators get plenty of notice to comply before they get spanked. If they ignore all the warnings, they pay a price.

In the past, the city community resource officer, hired by the police department, was solely responsible for code enforcement, along with animal control.

Under the new ordinance, any designated city official can decide who’s doing what wrong and take the steps to right it. Any citizen can file a complaint.

Chapter 9 is on the agenda for the July 25 city council meeting. Interested individuals are encouraged to attend to express their opinions.

“Enforcement is the key,” says Makowski. “I’m hopeful it can happen.”

Geri Kilgariff is a freelance writer whose past life was spent writing advertising in Phoenix. She currently spends half her time in Page. For this column, she talks with city councilors about their perspectives on issues facing the city.

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