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By Karla Pomeroy
Boomerang Staff Writer
Found in the middle of the Laramie City Council’s seven-page agenda for tonight’s meeting is a discussion item on extraterritorial jurisdiction regarding aquifer protection.
Mayor Klaus Hanson asked for the discussion item to be placed on the agenda following his attendance of two Albany County Planning and Zoning Committee meetings. The committee discussed, but took no action, on the Casper Aquifer Protection Plan at their July 9 meeting. The council approved the plan in June. The committee is scheduled to make recommendations to the commissioners at their meeting later this month, according to the Albany County Planning Office.
Hanson said: “I wanted to put council on notice that we’ve observed very slow action on the part of the county.” He said in approving the plan and the aquifer protection ordinance, the council voted to remove any language tying the ordinance to the county. Hanson said the argument in making the change was that “the county ought to do their own thing, but I sense time is of the essence.”
City Attorney David Clark said the item on tonight’s agenda is to gain direction from the council to see if they want to pursue an ordinance granting the city extraterritorial jurisdiction on aquifer protection. By state statute, a mayor, with power vested upon him by an ordinance, can seek jurisdiction of up to five miles beyond the corporate city limits for the enforcement of “health or quarantine,” Clark said. He said the city has used the state statute authority granting them the right to outlaw the sale of fireworks within a three-mile radius around the city limits.
The council can opt not to seek extraterritorial jurisdictional authority at this time, or direct Clark to draft an ordinance seeking that authority. The council can set the regulations that they want to have enforced in the boundary and can determine the extraterritorial boundary of up to five miles, Clark said.
The council has 22 action items on the regular agenda and 22 items on the consent agenda. Other items on the regular agenda include final reading on ordinances pertaining to the Overland Heights Addition located west of Overland Road between Bonneville and Whitman streets; an ordinance setting salaries for council members and a bid award for the 2008 street reconstruction project.
Karla Pomeroy’s e-mail address is lbedit9@laramieboomerang.com
Mayor Klaus Hanson asked for the discussion item to be placed on the agenda following his attendance of two Albany County Planning and Zoning Committee meetings. The committee discussed, but took no action, on the Casper Aquifer Protection Plan at their July 9 meeting. The council approved the plan in June. The committee is scheduled to make recommendations to the commissioners at their meeting later this month, according to the Albany County Planning Office.
Hanson said: “I wanted to put council on notice that we’ve observed very slow action on the part of the county.” He said in approving the plan and the aquifer protection ordinance, the council voted to remove any language tying the ordinance to the county. Hanson said the argument in making the change was that “the county ought to do their own thing, but I sense time is of the essence.”
City Attorney David Clark said the item on tonight’s agenda is to gain direction from the council to see if they want to pursue an ordinance granting the city extraterritorial jurisdiction on aquifer protection. By state statute, a mayor, with power vested upon him by an ordinance, can seek jurisdiction of up to five miles beyond the corporate city limits for the enforcement of “health or quarantine,” Clark said. He said the city has used the state statute authority granting them the right to outlaw the sale of fireworks within a three-mile radius around the city limits.
The council can opt not to seek extraterritorial jurisdictional authority at this time, or direct Clark to draft an ordinance seeking that authority. The council can set the regulations that they want to have enforced in the boundary and can determine the extraterritorial boundary of up to five miles, Clark said.
The council has 22 action items on the regular agenda and 22 items on the consent agenda. Other items on the regular agenda include final reading on ordinances pertaining to the Overland Heights Addition located west of Overland Road between Bonneville and Whitman streets; an ordinance setting salaries for council members and a bid award for the 2008 street reconstruction project.
Karla Pomeroy’s e-mail address is lbedit9@laramieboomerang.com
