The dreaded Code Enforcement. This is a hot button issue for many residents of our community, myself included. How many have received ominous letters in the mail telling them that they had better clean up their act or face fines. I have. My wife (Angie) and I bought our house in the downtown area last May. It was a foreclosure and had been vacant for about 10 months. We had not been in the house for week when we got a letter from Code Enforcement telling us that we had to take care of the weeds in our backyard or face fines. Now I can appreciate wanting to keep our City looking good and controlling pests and noxious weeds, but I ask the question; did the City ever send letters to the bank (who owned the vacant property for 10 months) and ask them to control the weeds? Or did they just wait and pounce on the little guy once I had purchased the property? So my wife and I went out and bought a trimmer so we could tackle the weed problem. We didn't own a lawn mower or trimmer yet because when we lived in Phoenix we had a xeriscape (no grass, drought tolerant plants and gravel) landscape. Now some may be thinking, "well you should take care of your weeds, they're a blight on the neighborhood." True, but let's keep in mind that the weeds in question were in my Backyard. That means the Code Enforcer went into my backyard without permission, took photos and then proceeded to send that letter. I don't think that's right. I have heard countless stories from others about code enforcement and their tactics and I think we need to strive for a balance between maintaining the beauty and quality of our City and common sense. Code Enforcement should not be seen or utilized as revenue producer and the fines can sometimes be over-the-top.
If you have any stories about Code Enforcement or comments on the issue, let us hear them.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Where I Stand #1
I've started this blog in order to let people know the areas I feel St. George could improve upon. I've chosen a blog over a traditional website because I like that it is easily updated and not just full of stock information about me. Here we can interact, a www.mattmortenson.com website would be good for a quick perusal and 5 minutes of information, with this blog we can constantly discuss the issues and get comments on the best way proceed. I plan on updating as fequent as I am able and when there is something to comment on.
With the economy in dumps, I know that this is the primary issue and concern of many people throughout the city and region. St. George to me is a place where you want to be, we have so many advantages from our quality of life, a 4-year college, our great weather (I know that being in the dog days of summer, we're pretty much tired of the heat, but hey it's almost done), and willing workforce. I look at other cities and towns in Utah and see larger and varied employers. Cedar City has Smead and GenPak. American Fork and Lehi are attracting new companies and business. I look at St. George and see mostly a service based economy that rely's on construction and tourism. I feel we need more diversity in our employer base. Specifically light manufacturing and tech companies. The question is; why haven't we attracted these types of companies that are now setting up in other cities? The answer; I don't think that they know about us and/or don't think of St. George as a business area but a vacation area. I say; why can't we be both? How? you say....well let me tell you. We need to get our name out there, this involves marketing St. George as a potential business destination. Funding our business development budget will pay dividends over the long haul as companies and employers will know about us and keep us in consideration when deciding where to start up or relocate. Also, we need to insure that our fair city is business friendly by cutting the red tape. It is important that a business not be frustrated and overwhelmed by too much paperwork, licensing fees, and impact fees. Because if it's too much effort or difficult to setup shop here then they'll just go somewhere else and we cannot afford to have that happen.
What do you think?
With the economy in dumps, I know that this is the primary issue and concern of many people throughout the city and region. St. George to me is a place where you want to be, we have so many advantages from our quality of life, a 4-year college, our great weather (I know that being in the dog days of summer, we're pretty much tired of the heat, but hey it's almost done), and willing workforce. I look at other cities and towns in Utah and see larger and varied employers. Cedar City has Smead and GenPak. American Fork and Lehi are attracting new companies and business. I look at St. George and see mostly a service based economy that rely's on construction and tourism. I feel we need more diversity in our employer base. Specifically light manufacturing and tech companies. The question is; why haven't we attracted these types of companies that are now setting up in other cities? The answer; I don't think that they know about us and/or don't think of St. George as a business area but a vacation area. I say; why can't we be both? How? you say....well let me tell you. We need to get our name out there, this involves marketing St. George as a potential business destination. Funding our business development budget will pay dividends over the long haul as companies and employers will know about us and keep us in consideration when deciding where to start up or relocate. Also, we need to insure that our fair city is business friendly by cutting the red tape. It is important that a business not be frustrated and overwhelmed by too much paperwork, licensing fees, and impact fees. Because if it's too much effort or difficult to setup shop here then they'll just go somewhere else and we cannot afford to have that happen.
What do you think?
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