The Town of Marystown is considering employing a municipal enforcement officer.
Marystown Mary Sam Synard told The Southern Gazette that council is in talks with the provincial government regarding a municipal enforcement officer position.
“Hopefully we will get an answer soon,” said Synard. “We started this process going back to last fall for sure, maybe last October.”
In July when The Gazette first spoke with Synard on the topic of an enforcement officer, he explained that the town had applied to the province.
Synard feels that the town could see a number of benefits from employing a municipal enforcement officer.
“Snow clearing regulation in the winter time (for one),” he said. “The requirement for off-street parking is always an on-going issue — we do have roads that are problematic for snow clearing because people park on the roads.”
He added that anti-littering regulations are another area where additional enforcement is needed.
Synard said a municipal enforcement officer would also help enforce the town by-laws.
“We have a noise ordinance, we have an animal control ordinance, we have an anti-nuisance ordinance,” he said. “The municipal enforcement officer, he or she, would not be enforcing the Criminal Code of Canada, or the Highway Traffic Act. They would basically (be) enforcing all of our own municipal bylaws.”
Synard added that currently, concerns from residents regarding the town’s bylaws are looked into by town staff, or even members of the Marystown Detachment of the RCMP.
“It is not a priority for the RCMP, they’re busy of course and most of the detachments are understaffed these days, so our municipal by-laws would be low on the food chain when it comes to enforcement from a police perspective, so we would enforce them ourselves,” the mayor noted.
Also interested
The Town of Marystown is not alone in addressing the need for a better solution for the enforcement of town regulations.
St. Lawrence Mayor Paul Pike told The Southern Gazette that council there has also being looking into the idea.
“It’s something that the town did have back in the ‘60s and early ‘70s— it was certainly a great help (in) enforcing many by-laws that the town had,” he said.
Pike said a municipal enforcement officer could help deal with issues such as vehicle wrecks on properties.
“Talking with my colleagues from across the province who have had them (municipal enforcement officers) in place they’ve been very successful in dealing with a lot of the problem areas they’ve had in their communities, and it certainly would help us,” he said.
Pike added, “The only issue is the cost associated with the enforcement officer.
“What we would be looking at, would be to partner with another community, or a couple of communities to possibly look at joining (together) to help pay the cost of one of these positions,” explained Pike, also noting the officer would need a vehicle.
