City codes are not being enforced

To the Editor,

     Welcome to the New Year and the still-ineffective city code!

     After wasting so much time going over the code to tighten it up and make it more effective, it continues to be unenforced and unenforceable.

     Why one would ask? Because it is so large and cumbersome and continues to contain such exacting things like the number of cats and dogs you are allowed to have.

     For God’s sake, one decent nuisance code should cover if someone is a nuisance, not the number of animals! Outlining each kind of nuisance with exacting detail is a waste of time, and for the most part, with no complaints, they don’t enforce it anyway, so why have it.

     At the same time, as long as I have lived here in Monticello, every year snowmobiles have run into town mainly on the city’s property across the street from me. Never have they come on my side of the street until this year, and I was damned sure that wasn’t legal without permission. When it got to the last house, it cut across the street and finished heading out. It is illegal to operate snowmobiles in this city, with the only exception being an emergency and then and only then, they have to stay on the snow-covered streets. (City Code Chapter 75.03, 75.04, 75.05, and 75.06) That officially makes it a violation of the code that has been on the books for some time and also says they are not to operate on city property.

     We pay good money to have a police force 24/7. I can’t imagine they haven’t seen these snow machines operating in the city if they are out there doing their job. So why isn’t this being enforced?

Steve Hanken

Monticello, Iowa