Greene County’s smaller towns may get some help in their efforts to initiate uniform code enforcement.
The mayors of Scranton, Churdan, Paton, Grand Junction and Jefferson have met in recent months to discuss common issues, including nuisance abatement, animal control, houses of ill fame, rental inspections and more. There is interest at the mayors’ roundtable of enacting the same ordinances in every town and hiring a shared code enforcement official.
Chris Whitaker of Region XII Council of Governments attended the county board of supervisors’ June 27 meeting for a status update on the Scranton Manufacturing expansion project, and to talk about a possible USDA Rural Community Development Initiative (RCDI) grant. The grant program provides funding on a dollar-for-dollar match for housing, community facilities and community and economic development projects in towns of under 50,000 in population.
Whitaker proposed that Region XII could serve as the qualifying organization to receive the grant on behalf of Greene County towns, and then provide financial and technical assistance to them, naming unified code enforcement as a possible project.
The supervisors agreed that the county could serve as fiscal agent for the grant, as it has with the IEDA grant to Scranton Manufacturing.
To date, Rippey and Dana have not been involved in the mayors’ roundtable discussions. Whitaker said they are welcome to participate.
Jefferson mayor Craig Berry sat in on Whitaker’s presentation to the supervisors and mentioned the RCDI grant at the Jefferson council meeting Tuesday night. Berry said Jefferson would not be a participant in the grant as there are already ordinances in place and the city employs a code enforcement official.
