The heavy hand of government

The city of Hillsboro ought to arrest Ben Fenner. By God, it should.

The city ought to arrest Letcher Langston, too.

The city ought to arrest Jack Hope.

The city ought to arrest whomever owns the dilapidated barn on the hill on the east side of North West Street just past Chariss Avenue.

The city ought to arrest whomever owns what used to be Webster Elementary School.

The city ought to arrest itself, too.

And you.

And me.

After all, every property within the city limits – and beyond – has the potential to be dangerous at one time or another. Especially to trespassers. Granted, a trespasser is anyone entering someone's land or property “without permission.”

For instance, as an owner of private property in multiple counties, I can assure that trespassing can be hazardous to one’s well-being. Walk through my front door uninvited and I’ll explain in explicit detail. It won’t take long, either.

It seems the city of Hillsboro administration is overly infatuated with City Ordinance Section 150.05. Moreover, it seems the city is overly aggressive – and peculiarly selective – with the enforcement thereof.

According to the section, (A): “On information or complaint, the (city) Housing Inspector shall investigate complaints that a building in the city is dangerous to the safety of inhabitants, of visitors, of the public or of juvenile trespassers. (Adult trespassers, apparently, can enter at their own risk.) In performing this function, the Housing Inspector shall acquire such expertise as the Inspector may deem necessary, such as engineers, architects or building contractors. The Inspector may utilize funds from the administrative appropriations for the Mayor’s Office for this purpose. The Fire Chief and Law Director shall provide advice at the Inspector’s request.”

Thus, you or me or anyone else can make a complaint against anyone and the city is obligated to investigate. But it is NOT obligated to warn any of us of these possible dangers. That’s a great law.

Knowing full well this request – like many others – will be ignored, I would implore the city’s “fire chief” and law director to share with the public their respective advice to this administration.

Funny, a few years ago while campaigning for office, the present “mayor” railed against what he called the heavy hand of government. He railed against the EPA, RCAP, PUCO and any other alphabetical abbreviations he could conjure. Today, he IS the heavy hand of government.

Last week, the city was asked if it is absolutely certain that all properties owned by the city and city administrators are up to the new building codes. Are they?

Shouldn’t they be, before enforcing the new codes on anyone else?

In addition, the city ought to immediately disclose all local, state and federal tax dollars that city employees and elected or appointed officials and their relatives have received with respect to their own properties. This would include all grants, revolving loans, baksheesh, or any other such transfer of funds.

It’s pretty easy to order others to make improvements at their own expense, while their tax dollars help improve your property, isn’t it?

Meanwhile, let’s lock up a local businessman like Ben Fenner, who has admirably lived and worked in Highland County for more than half a century. Really?

Oh, and one more thing, if the city actually does arrest Ben, will the city’s mouthpiece “newspaper” contribute to Ben’s defense? After all, in their bankruptcy filing, they admitted to owing Ben some money…

I’ll probably be arrested for that suggestion.

Rory Ryan is publisher and owner of The Highland County Press.