CITY EYESORES

If you may recall Mayor Rice stated at the recent Mayor’s Forum that the City of Havre was in the process of investigating a possible new ordinance requiring that local Landlords be licensed before they could carry on any rental business in the city limits. Rice further claimed that the ordinance would require that rental properties be inspected by City officials to make sure they were in good shape before the property owner could rent them out and this would begin the process of getting rid of “eyesore” properties in City limits.

Apparently this has struck a chord with one of our readers that recently sent us an e-mail with a couple of pictures of a City owned building on the alley between Washington and Cleveland Avenues on 11th Street. Why is the City so concerned with “eyesore” properties, which they arbitrarily attribute to being owned only by landlords, when they don’t even take care of City owned eyesore property? It would seem that they should fix up their own blighted holdings before they make new laws. This City owned well house has been in this state of decay for decades so why did they not “get’er done”?