Malta City Council passes yard ordinance

The Malta City Council unanimously passed an ordinance at their last meeting which will, they hope, make the City more pleasant to look at.

Ordinance 448 prohibits non-street legal vehicles and non-street legal recreational vehicles intended for recreational use from being parked or stored on any portion of a front yard or corner lot side yard within the City limits. Tuesday night marked the second reading of Ordinance 448 and the measure was discussed by the public, the council members and Malta Mayor Shyla Jones for nearly 20 minutes before going on the books.

Malta resident Jan Abrahamson asked the mayor and council to clarify what she would be allowed to park in her yard.

“I have quite a bit of stuff in my yard and I guess it rotates,” Abrahmason said. "I have a corner lot and anything I do, no matter what I do, people see my stuff.”

Abrahamson asked about her licensed boat, and if that could be parked in her yard, and she was assured she would be able to because the vehicle is licensed and therefore “street-legal.”

Malta Mayor Shyla Jones said Ordinance 448 would be enforced in several steps. The first step would be for a complaint to be made to the City of Malta about a property. The Malta City Council and Malta Mayor would then look at the property to see if the home owner or renters are in fact in violation of the ordinance. If the property is found to be in violation, a letter would be sent to the property owner asking for the situation to be rectified. If the problem persists, the information would be passed on to the Phillips County Sheriff’s Office which would both write and deliver a ticket to the offender. The final step would be for the accused to go in front of Phillips County Justice of the Peace Gayle Stahl.

“The City will be the one to ask the sheriff’s office to write the tickets,” Mayor Jones said. “Five years down the road, you might have five new people (on the council) so you will always be at the mercy of who sits here and how much they enforce this and how much they don’t, just like any ordinance.”

Besides non-licensed vehicles, the ordinance bans such items as engine parts, lawnmower parts or anything deemed junk. Councilman David Rummel asked for clarification on items that may be deemed as junk, but are repurposed items used as decorations in yards (an old pickup decorated with the accompanying Holiday was mentioned.)

“That’s absolutely décor,” Councilwoman Bonnie Wiederrick said. “They decorate it for every season there is.”

Councilman Bill Hicks added that the council will just need to use “common sense” when it comes to decideing if an item is junk or decoration.

“I am decorating my boat,” Abrahamson kidded.

Ultimately, Mayor Jones reiterated, the council and mayor will decide on each situation.

People found in violation of the ordinance, if it is passed, could be charged with a misdemeanor and/or receive a fine of not more than $500 and,/or imprisonment in the county jail for no more than six months. The City of Malta would also have the right to remove the offending vehicle or junk at the owner's expense. The ordinance goes into effect March 16 (30 days after being approved.)

New Business

During the new business portion of the council meeting, Mayor Jones informed the council that Superfund Clean-up at the old airport in Malta isn’t going to be completed as previously planned. She said that though the City of Malta was told the price tag of the project on three different occasions, the engineering firm quoted prices from 2012 (instead of 2015) leaving the project short on funds. The engineering firm in question had enough money put aside ($21,500) to get the latest portion of the projected completed. The project is still short some $32,000 to get it through Montana Department of Environmental Quality’s (DEQ) final testing and finishing reports.

Mayor Jones said in the spring, Bishop Inc. will complete work at the site — including backfilling, pavement, and planting grass — but that is where the project, for now, will stall. Mayor Jones added that there are some grants the City of Malta could have applied for to put towards the project, but a lack of matching funds coupled with no economic development report from PhillCo Economic Growth Council left the City short on the grant’s submission criteria.

Department Reports

Malta Public Works Director Jim Truelove informed the council that water test results from DEQ came back 100-percent perfect. He said he turned the chlorine levels up per DEQ’s requests.

Water Project Update

The Malta City Council approved a release of $106,464.48 to pay for three invoices to the engineering firm associated with the city’s water project. Mayor Jones read from an email she was sent by the engineering firm asking for more money for their upcoming work. The entire amount of money budgeted and requested from the firm in the initial bidding of the project was $391,000 (or $49,000 per month.)

“They would like an additional $278,000,” Mayor Jones said. “That is not going to fly.”

Mayor Jones said the engineering firm had to have more people in Malta to oversee the project because of the work that had to be re-done last summer because the initial construction work was not done properly the first time. Mayor Jones said she would advise the engineering firm to seek the funds from the construction company.

Mayor Jones added that safeguards are being put in place for this year’s water project construction in which construction work in one area will be done correctly before crews are allowed to move to other areas of town to dig-up and start new construction.

“We aren’t going to have the disaster we had here last year,” she said. “There will be some direction next year.”

She also said the tentative start date for this year’s water project constriction is May 1 (earlier if the weather permits.)

Also in conjunction with the water project, a Malta business who did subcontractor work on the project last year said they still had not been paid for work they have completed. Mayor Jones sympathized with the company owners and said that the construction firm had not submitted their billing to the City and therefore couldn’t authorize the release of the payments to the construction company (who, in turn, owes the Malta subcontractor the back pay.)

Mayor Jones advised the subcontractors to contact the Montana Department of Labor.