Mountain Grove City Council Addresses Franchise Fees and Nuisance Ordinance

The Mountain Grove City Council met Tuesday night and after reviewing monthly reports they heard an update from City Administrator Rick Otersky on the progress with the building renovation committee. Otersky says that they are looking at how much each aspect of the building renovations projects will cost and work from there.

Otersky also brought to council’s attention a disparity in the collection of franchise fees from various businesses. An example is that the city collected franchise fees from Cable America for TV service but not DirectTV or Dish TV. There were also examples of disparity among wireless carriers, US Cellular being a business that wasn’t paying a fee. And Otersky said that of the city citizens heating their home with gas, half used Summit Natural Gas which pays a franchise fee and the other half used one of the area propane companies which none have paid a fee.

Also brought before city council was discussion on the nuisance ordinance and some problems with properties not getting taken care of, or some attempting to do the bare minimum but not actually meeting the desired outcome. Alderman Cherri Unger proposed eliminating the 3-strike system of $100 fine on a first offense, $250 fine for a second offense and $500 fine for a 3rd and subsequent offense and proposed a flat $300 fine for all offenses. The proposed amendment to the nuisance ordinance was approved by all except aldermen Dan Bartlett and Wayne Jones.

Mountain Grove City Council then convened an executive session to discuss personnel before adjourning for the night.

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