Council receives first proof of new municipal codes

    After more than a year and a half of anticipation, Holyoke City Council was presented with the first proof of its new, collated collection of codes from recodification firm Municode at its regular meeting Tuesday, May 21.
    City Attorney Al Wall reviewed the history of the project, which began in November 2017 when the City first accepted Municode’s bid to restructure its municipal codes.
    Since then, officials — namely City Superintendent Mark Brown, Holyoke Police Chief Doug Bergstrom, City Clerk Kathy Olofson and Wall — have been involved in collecting relevant codes, and rewording or eliminating outdated codes.
    Wall stressed that collecting all of the city’s relevant codes in one place will make it easier for HPD officers and city crews to do their jobs.
    “Reading all of that just about drives you batty,” he said, referring to the City’s current collection of codes. “This reads a lot better, and I think it’s going to serve our police officers better.”
    Updated ordinances concern everything from violent crime, to property crimes, to building codes, which were modeled off the building codes of other Colorado municipalities and updated to reflect the 2018 International Building Code.
    Wall said the company plans to print a limited number of new codebooks, which will include the City’s charter. The code will also be made available online. The previous codebook was printed in the early 1970s.
    Brown later said that any ordinance revisions that constitute more than a change in verbiage will have to be approved in a separate package by the council.
    The council also voted to pay Municode to assemble a fee schedule for ordinance violations at the cost of $150 per page. Olofson estimated the schedule will be one to one and a half pages in length.

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