DOWAGIAC — Among the handful of agenda items discussed at the Dowagiac City Council meeting on Monday night, a new ordinance was introduced to the city.

An ordinance to adopt the International Property Maintenance Code for properties located within the city of Dowagiac was read to the council for the first time.

City Manager Kevin Anderson explained the city’s current code has some reference to the International Property Maintenance Code, but several updates and additions have been added.

By passing this ordinance, the city will adopt whatever is the most current and updated version of the code. Therefore, this ordinance will automatically update instead of routinely having to be brought back to the council for approval.

“The most current code that’s been vetted by the international society would always be at the disposal of the code enforcement,” Anderson said.

The ordinance could be voted in at the council’s next meeting.

During public comments, Corinne Hoyt brought a suggestion to the city council for the new placement of a bike rack. Currently, Beeson Street is closed down, leaving residents with two other places to park their bikes. Hoyt suggested moving a bike rack to the old Beckwith park. Therefore, people going to Caruso’s or Saylor’s Front Street Pizzeria would not have to cross as busy of an intersection, she said.

“That would resolve the issue of no bikes on the street,” Hoyt said, outlining several other suggestions of places she has noticed while riding her bike that could use a lane, including Ashland Street.

“I’m proud of our city. We have all this beautiful riding out there,” Hoyt said. “People don’t understand that people on bikes need to have at least a line they can be in.”

Mayor Don Lyons said he and the city manager had discussed similar thoughts in regards to bikers’ accessibility in those areas.

Public hearings were also scheduled for blighted properties at 105 Jay St. and 309 Wooden Ave. during Monday’s meeting. No comments were made by the audience or council members in regards to either property.

A resolution was passed by the council to determine the 105 Jay St. property constituted as a nuisance.

Councilmember Charles Burling said the woman who owns the 105 Jay St. property does not have the financial means to do anything to her property.

The property will go on the tax roll and ultimately the vacant property will go to the city if there is no payment of the taxes, Anderson confirmed to Burling.

“It will eventually roll back to us, and there is no value in it anyway,” Lyons said.

Anderson said code enforcement officer Steve Allen has been in contact with the property owner. When the owner first received some notices, she indicated there is no way she could fix the house, Anderson said. After the city inspected the property, it came to the decision that the cost to fix the house would far exceed the value of the property.

The second resolution also passed to determine the property at 309 Wooden Ave as a nuisance.

A third resolution dealt with the city’s entrance into an agreement with Robin Saylor regarding special assessments for the removal of blight in the form of tires and other accumulated items at 313 E. Division St. Saylor purchased the property, which used to belong to Division Tire and Battery, Inc.

Anderson said Saylor did not realize the special assessments were on the property when she purchased it. The property will be used as a business that Saylor is currently operating out of her home.

“We are proposing we do for this something very similar to what we did a few years ago,” Anderson said.  “When someone had a large tree, there was a special assessment on it, and they had concerns that they didn’t get the notifications. We arranged for a payment plan.”

The city has over $7,500 of actual expenditures they incurred on the property. Saylor would pay $200 worth of monthly payments for 24 months.

Anderson said the city’s intention is for Saylor to not ever get to 24 months.

“Once we get this agreement in place, we can relieve the lean that’s on the property,” Anderson said. “They will be in the position to go out and do some financing on that. Their intention is to finance that particular piece of property.”

Anderson said the city in the past has entered payment plan agreements in these types of unusual circumstances.