St. Ignatius set to adopt several new ordinances
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MISSION — Mission’s city council is set to adopt several new city ordinances in the coming months.
The Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000, an amendment to the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Act of 1988, requires local governments to adopt a pre-disaster mitigation plan so they can become eligible for hazard mitigation funding. In short, the plan identifies potential hazards for small townships and cities and ranks them based on severity and likelihood. Once recognized in the pre-disaster mitigation plan, townships may petition the government for funding and grants in order to reduce these risks. In the St. Ignatius area, the most likely potential hazards include flooding, wildfires and earthquakes.
While the council is still working on the final draft of the resolution, the new flood plan ordinance must be adopted before Feb. 5, 2013. If a plan is not adopted before Feb. 5, anyone within Mission city limits will not be able to renew their flood insurance.
“We’re over the barrel on this one,” said Mission clerk-treasurer Lee Ann Gottfried. “We can’t change that because it is dictated at the federal level.”
Several local residents had expressed concern over the past several months about Mission’s youth skateboarding down Old Highway 93 and other roads. In response, the council is modeling a new ordinance after Polson’s skateboarding ordinance that was passed and approved in 1989. The name of the city, specific roads and highways not to be used and times of day when skateboarding will or will not be allowed are the only things scheduled to be changed.
The council intends to adopt this ordinance after some tweaking. The first and second readings are scheduled for Jan. 8 and Feb. 5, 2013, respectively.
In addition, a new ordinance regarding animal control was adopted after the first reading. Most ordinances are not adopted for quite a while, but in this case the council made an exception due to the nature and timeframe of the matter at hand.
The CSKT Housing and Lands authorities will hold their next meeting Dec. 19. Mission’s animal control officer was told by two tribal authorities working with Tribal Housing and Lands that if the town adopted a new, up-to-date animal control ordinance before the annual meeting, they would try to convince the tribal lands office to require any new leases signed within city limits be subject to the new ordinance.
Gottfried said this is the only meeting where policies can be changed, and if the matter is not brought up for discussion at this meeting, it will not be considered again until next year.
“It would be a major step forward for the town being able to address our animal control issues,” Gottfried said.
Because of the holidays, Mission’s city council meeting date has been changed from the first Tuesday of the month (Jan. 1) to the following week, Jan. 8.
