Coalition program focuses on city ordinances

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

The Seventh Ward Citizens Coalition will conduct a program at 6:30 p.m. today at Faith Community Covenant Church, 1919 E. Midlothian Blvd.

Nicole Billec, the city’s assistant law director, will highlight components of a quality-of-life ordinance enacted in May. The organization also will begin sales of a guidebook informing residents of the new law.

The ordinance is an aggregate of 20 city ordinances dealing with issues that adversely impact quality of life in city neighborhoods, including uncut grass and weeds, littering and the accumulation of trash, illegal parking and storage of junk, loud music and barking dogs.

Violators will be treated as civil, rather than criminal, offenders – similar to one’s getting a parking ticket, for instance – and as such, enforcement by the Community Police program launched in the summer police department will be speedier and more effective.

The 7WCC booklet that will be sold for $3 contains the full text of the new law, summarizes each individual component in easy-to-understand language, teaches readers how to look up city ordinances on the Internet, and provides useful contact information for select city departments and local nonprofits.