Vanceburg talks budget, ordinances and homelessness

VANCEBURG — Primary discussion topics at a recent Vanceburg City Council meeting included homelessness, budgets, and ordinances.

The meeting began with the first reading of Ordinance 200.00-2024, which pertains to the budget for the fiscal years 2024 and 2025. No action needed to be taken as it was a first reading only.

The reading was followed by the first reading of Ordinance 970.00A, a possible amendment to the current Ordinance 970.00 which states mobile homes must be from 1978 or newer to be in the city.

The idea going into the meeting was the ordinance should be amended to say mobile homes should be no older than 10 years to be moved into the city.

“I’d just like to mention that I don’t think 10 years is going back far enough. I know it needs to be updated but with the cost of a new mobile home is between $50-70,000, that’s a single wide, where they used to be $20, you know. I feel like 10 isn’t long enough. Me, personally, I’d like to see 20-25 years with an exception of an inspection, you know,” said Council Member Kathy McCann.

Council Member Angie Patton responded.

“In the past I have seen them put a sticker on something that I don’t know how they moved it in here without it falling apart,” said Patton.

A licensed installer was at the meeting and gave some insight into how this can happen. He stated some professionals have been known to sell their official stickers illegally in order to get past zoning ordinances.

The licensed installer went on to say that a C1 certified sticker, which is installed by an installer cannot be faked and so he believed that if the ordinance stated that a C1 sticker was present, the mobile home could be approved regardless of age.

Council Member Kody Willis asked if the conversation could be tabled until more information could be gathered.

Vanceburg City Attorney Stephen McGinnis agreed and stated he would like to speak with the licensed installer who was present to get some more information from him in order to make the proper additions to the ordinance.

Mayor Dane Blankenship switched gears to discuss the People’s Self-Help Housing Proposal.

The People’s Self-Help Housing is under new management and is asking to remain in the city, he said. The city would profit around $11,000 a year if they stayed in the city.

Blankenship insisted the new ownership seems promising and said they are proposing to take care of all of their maintenance which was previously left up to the city.

“I would like to see it stay with People’s Self-Help Housing,” said Blankenship.

Patton suggested offering a three-year contract at 50 percent and Council Member Joni Pugh agreed.

The council then went into executive session to discuss pending litigation. Upon their return, they announced that no action was taken.

Blankenship asked if anyone had anything they would like to discuss before the meeting continued.

“I just wanted to kind of stand up for Billy Pittman because there were bad things said about him at the last meeting,” began Pugh.

Pugh also stated that the Chamber of Commerce is in good standing and compared this to last month’s meeting, where it was stated that they were not.

Blankenship then stated he would like to make a comprehensive plan for Scott Park. Blankenship stated the ramp is already there and he would like to be able to use it for kayaking and canoeing and such.

To round out the evening’s meeting, Cassie Johnson from the Vanceburg Homeless Coalition took to the podium to discuss the needs of the community.

“It has come to our attention that some city and county members have opposed external and internal funding for the homeless in the Lewis County area such as private donations, etc.. Maybe this is because our leadership doesn’t understand the definition of homelessness or the struggle some of our community residents are having,” Johnson said.

Johnson continued, “However, we are very grateful for the current leadership support and help we are receiving. The Vanceburg Homeless Coalition has served 40-plus clients since we started working in our community. There are 29 plus current, active cases. Most of our clients are classified as sheltered homeless without electric or water, not fit for community habitation.”

Johnson went on to say some homeless community members are living in tents, campers, staying on someone else’s property or couch surfing.

“Sometimes sheltering is not a good solution for our clients. Sometimes beds are not available in Maysville or in shelters and it saddens us,” Johnson said.

There are different resources the Vanceburg Homeless Coalition can assist with. These include hot meals, food resources, hygiene products, shelter information, housing applications, receiving mail at their post office box, the use of a physical address for government documents, clothing and winter wood.

Johnson asked for support as the coalition is working toward their 501c3 non-profit certification.

“We ask that the current leadership and residents of Lewis County to continue to support in our mission of helping those in the population of the homeless,” said Johnson.