By JOSHUA THOMAS

C-S-E Editor

FORT PLAIN — During Tuesday’s Village Board of Fort Plain meeting, the council decided to hold a public hearing on November 19, at 6:45 p.m., prior to their next regularly scheduled meeting (moved from Tuesday, Nov. 20), regarding the potential adoption of a public nuisance law.

The law was brought to Chief Robert Thomas’ attention last year, and while Thomas didn’t initially think the law’s adoption was imminently important, he said that several instances this past summer led him to believe that the law could be helpful in curtailing the problem behavior of repeat offenders within the village. Thomas noted that the department’s case load is up about 20 percent this year, and attributed that raise partially to the problem residents that have required police visitation on numerous occasions.

Thomas said he hopes the law will be enough to alert land and property owners that there may be ramifications if they continue to rent to “habitual problems”.

He explained, “after reviewing this law, it might be something that’s applicable for us to get control of some of these rental properties where we have out-of-town homeowners,” that allow properties “to become dilapidated”, or house repeatedly problem and/or disorderly tenants.

Village Attorney John Kirkpatrick reviewed the law, and noted during Tuesday’s meeting that its adoption is feasible, explaining that numerous departments, including Amster-dam Police Department, have successfully adopted it.

If the law is adopted, Thomas said he’d act as manager, and two or three people should be appointed to a board that would review the problem issues. A hearing officer would also be assigned, who would make the decision whether to negotiate rectification in each case, or whether individual cases should proceed to court, at which point, Thomas said “the judge would now have some teeth, as it’s a local law,” allowing them to level punitive measures.