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Pawhuska

Posted: Jun 10, 2021 11:32 AMUpdated: Jun 10, 2021 1:32 PM

Pawhuska Business Owner Wants Code Enforcement to be Reviewed

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Ty Loftis

At Tuesday evening's city council meeting in Pawhuska, Cathi Ball, who owns Mariposa Pawhuska, asked to be put on the agenda so that discussion could be had regarding code enforcement across town. Ball said that in April, she had decided to make a few minor re-modeling changes to her building such as raising the ceiling four feet. She had hoped to be done by May 1st, which was when movie producers were to begin re-modeling downtown storefronts.

 

On the final day of re-modeling, Utilities Director Bill Bruce came in and said they had to remove the work so that they could do proper inspections to make sure everything was up to code, even though Ball's contractors had already said their work was up to code.

 

Ball explained to Bruce that she wanted to do the right thing, as she wasn't aware of those rules. Bruce showed Ball the codes as they are currently written and she doesn't believe she should have to abide those particular guidelines.

 

Ball went down to city hall to get a copy of the code book and it was her belief that there was no language specifying what could help businesses better understand code violations. Ball said it wasn't her intention to cause problems, she simply wanted to make it easier for herself and other Pawhuska businesses.

 

Bruce says a majority of these issues arise when businesses hire contractors to do work from other towns. They are unfamiliar with what the codes are in Pawhuska and this is what happened to Ball.

 

The council recently updated all outdated codes to the 2018 edition. They hadn't been updated since 2011.


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