Othello City Council roundup

OTHELLO — Cars permanently parked on the street is a problem in Othello, according to Roger Ensz during public comment time during a regular Othello City Council meeting on Monday.

“They haven’t moved since the snow storm,” Ensz said.

He also said that he has seen people parking trailers on the street, but he said he was told he could not park his trailer on the street.

“What’s the problem here?” Ensz asked. “Do we need more staff? Or do we allow our streets to become a place to park junk vehicles?”

Ensz presented a pictorial list of a quarter of the problem vehicles in Othello. He said that he gave the same list to the Othello police chief about three weeks ago and only one of the vehicles has been moved.

“I wanted to bring it to your attention that we have issues,” said Ensz, as he concluded his public comment time.

Later during the new business portion of the meeting, council member Mark Snyder brought the subject back up. He asked audience member Oscar Garza, owner of Oscar’s Towing, if he had received any calls from the city to tow cars.

Garza said that he had not received any calls. He commended the code enforcement officer and police chief for the work that they do.

“If there’s not great communication between us,” said Garza, “blame it on me, not them. If there is a car out there that someone needs picked up, I’ll take it.”

The city council said they would look into the situation further.

Another citizen, Liz Jensen, commented that the fireworks that residents were setting off made the town sound “like a war zone.” She said she was hearing fireworks go off until 2 a.m. She also commented on the debris that was left on the streets.

“I don’t want them again if we can’t enforce them,” Jensen said.

Councilman John Lallas said that the rules concerning what fireworks were allowed and when they were allowed was posted on Facebook, but that the rules were violated. Snyder and Mayor Pro-tem Genna Dorow both said that they would like to re-visit the issue.