Parshall to crack down in 2014
By Jerry W. Kram
The Parshall City Council is looking at getting tough on several fronts as the community prepares to celebrate its centennial in June.
Mayor Richard Bolkan opened the meeting with a question about what the city could do about people who abuse the city’s building permit system. He said there have been too many cases where people or contractors have just failed to get a building permit for projects to build or improve buildings. Others have gotten permits for projects that never took place and some buildings have more occupants than are allowed by existing permits.
"We’ve go to get stronger in enforcing our building permits," Bolkan said. "Developers who come in for a permit need to give us a timeline and the permits need to have enforcement provisions."
City Attorney Bill Woods said one possibility is to put a deadline of one year on permits with an option to renew the permits for another years for residential property and two years for commercial and industrial projects. The council instructed Woods to draft an ordinance for the council’s next meeting.
