(Posted June 14, 2018)
By Amanda Ensinger, Staff Writer
With parking violations an ongoing issue, Mount Sterling council members are looking at ways to enact stricter regulations.
On June 11, leaders discussed changing the village law to require residents to move their vehicles a certain among of feet within a 24-hour period in public parking spaces to avoid being ticketed.
“It isn’t going to take much to change this ordinance,” said Mark Pitstick, village law director. “We would add that cars must be moved 75 feet or more by 24 hours.”
The village also would like to internally handle parking violations.
“Right now, these tickets go through municipal court in London. If we had a parking violation bureau, we could keep this money in the village,” said Jack Dill, a Madison County sheriff’s deputy and recreation director for the village.
Council also discussed measures they are taking to increase revenues, including collecting on unpaid RITA taxes and ensuring all residents are paying their fair share of water expenses.
“RITA is going to start sending letters out to people who live in the community, lived in the community, rented, are business owners and even contractors who did work here for a period of time,” said Courtney Bricker, fiscal officer. “This is part of their delinquent program and will be for people who have not paid everything they need or never paid. We are just trying to have people pay for what they have used.”
The village also is working to ensure that residents are paying their fair share for water after estimating water bills for years.
“We are going house to house and getting official reading instead of estimates, so we can confirm residents are getting charged the right amounts,” Bricker said.
Mayor Billy Martin added that not all residents are fans of this, but it is necessary.
Council discussed hiring an engineering firm to look for grant money and plan for the future. They want experts to study the village’s utilities, look for funding for projects like new radio water meters, and oversee street and curb improvements.
“We need a firm that can take our ideas and tell us what type of grants are out there to make these projects happen,” Martin said. “We work every day to see how we can improve this community, and an engineering firm will make these projects possible.”
Regarding upcoming events, the movie night set for June 14 was postponed because the village needs to secure licensing to show the movie. Also, not date has been set for the Family Feud event. Dill said dates for these events should be announced soon.
