Clean up or clear out?
City leaders ponder methods to improve ‘look’ of Ontario

By JESSICA KELLER
ARGUS OBSERVER
Wednesday, July 22, 2009 10:39 AM PDT

This residence situated near the railroad tracks off of North Oregon Street can be seen from Interstate 84 headed toward Idaho. It is one of many examples of places that need to be cleaned up in Ontario, at least one resident and city officials agree.

ONTARIO — Ontario resident Eugene Doughty was a bit put out following a conversation with two women driving through town.

The two females stopped and asked for directions to a local motel last week.

But it was a comment one of them made about Ontario that rubbed Doughty the wrong way.

Doughty said that the driver of the car said, when they first turned into town, she thought they had turned into a wrecking yard.

“That kinda burned, you know?” he said.

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He added it’s like a visitor coming into somebody’s home and saying they found dirt after their host had spent a great deal of time cleaning in preparation.

The episode forced Doughty to review what visitors saw when they accidentally turned down the wrong street after coming into Ontario, and, after surveying some of his city’s streets, he realized there was a lot to be desired.

Doughty said he thinks the Ontario City Council needs to put more effort into cleaning this town up to make it attractive for prospective businesses and people who come into the city.

“We need something in this town,” he said. “We need to grow.”

Doughty isn’t the only one worried about Ontario’s image, and the very issue Doughty’s concerned with has also been raised at the City Council level, specifically, at a council work session last week where council members spoke with Ontario Police Chief Mike Kee and Ordinance Officer James Swank about Swank’s job.

To Ontario City Councilman Norm Crume, ordinance violations are a great concern to him.

“It’s not just being on the council,” Crume said of his interest in the ordinance violations, specifically graffiti abatement.

“I guess what’s drawn my eye to it a little more is doing the graffiti cleaning and going into some of those areas that are beyond nasty. Once you open your eyes to it, you can see it everywhere.”

Crume said he is very aware some of these issues can be touchy, especially because they deal with personal property, but, on the other hand, he said the city does have ordinances and for very good reasons, but they are not being followed in some instances.

“And I don’t have an answer, but I think it’s something we need to work on,” he said.

At first, Crume said he was not convinced the city’s ordinance officer was doing his job well because the end result did not seem to be accomplishing anything visible, but, after hearing from Kee and Swank last week, he changed his mind, and instead he said he thinks the council needs to look at ways to aid in the solution.

“I can understand it better now,” he said, adding the ordinance officer has a great deal of road blocks on his end just trying to perform his duties.

Crume said he was especially surprised to learn Swank’s ordinance officer duties are split with other duties he performs for the Ontario Public Works Department, which pays for a portion of his salary.

While Crume said he didn’t receive too many ideas from other council members at last week’s work session, the issue bears more consideration, he said, as well as sensitivity.

“There’s a fine line between making our community nice and clean and jumping over and taking away people’s civil rights,” Crume said.

But, although Crume said he did not feel he generated the interest he was hoping among council members last week, the issue has not died altogether.

Ontario Mayor Joe Dominick said the council will be following up on the matter in a future work session that has yet to be set.

He said, a number of City Council member concerns will be addressed in future work sessions, but they need to be prioritized.

Dominick said, however, the ordinance discussion may come up sooner because of its importance.

“I think we need to give the chief more direction on the job we, as councilors, would like to see,” Dominick said.

Kee said, both in the work session and following the meeting, direction from the council on what their priorities are would be ideal because, as it stands, Swank’s orders are pretty broad.

“He comes to work, and we tell him to take care of all the ordinance violations,” Kee said of instructions to the ordinance officer. “The biggest challenge for him is just keeping up with things.”

That means, in addition to work for Ontario Public Works to make sure cars are cleared from streets about to be chip-sealed and alleys are free from debris, which is another important issue for public works, Swank is responsible for taking care of dogs running at large and other animal complaints, animal licensing, nuisance abatement — garbage, weed, junk cars, graffiti, open cess pools, etc., as well as traffic control at crashes when OPD does not have enough patrol officers to help.

But, Kee said, while the results may not be visible, Swank is getting things done.

He said, between April and June, Swank followed up on, wrote reports on and cleared 299 complaints: 154 for weeds; 22 for garbage; 116 animal complaints and seven abandoned vehicles.

But Kee said he thinks the council’s concern of things not getting done is valid.

“There are things not getting done,” Kee said. “They just need to let us know what’s most important to them and, by golly, that’s what we’ll do. And that may be just a better way to do this than sending him out and having him take care of whatever he comes across.”