Havre taking some old laws off the books

The city of Havre is going through its codes, finding some laws that are obsolete.

City officials found some of the old laws a tad humorous.

For instance, Monday night, City Council took the first step in erasing from city codes a provision that allows it to regulate radio stations — commercial and ham radio — and their frequencies.

The city once had that authority, but in the 1930s, Councilman Andrew Brekke said, the federal government took over that responsibility.

But in reviewing the city laws, council discovered that the old provision was still on the books.

“Technically we could shut down KOJM,” he said, laughing, after the meeting.

Council also voted to eliminate a city code that set rates for inspecting gas lines.

Plumbers would do the work, and for a while city employees would sometimes inspect the gas lines installed by NorthWestern Energy, it was explained.

That job is now done almost entirely by the state of Montana, it was explained.

In recent years, the city has received about $40 from fees paid by plumbers for inspecting lines, Brekke said. It hasn’t been worth the city’s effort.

The portion of city codes that dealt with relations between the city and its cable television provider referred to TCI as the cable provider.

TCI provided cable service for many years, but TCI morphed into Bresnan Communications, which became Optimum, which last week was acquired by Charter.

Now city laws will refer only to the city’s cable provider, not naming any particular company, so if Charter is someday acquired by someone else, the new company will automatically be covered.

Councilwoman Bonnie Parenteau said the change was wise.

“It costs us money every time we change the codes,” she said. “If we had to change them every time we get a new cable company in Havre, we’d go broke.”

Besides the humor though, there were serious points.

Councilman Jay Pyette said that conceivably, a cable company could say it isn’t bound by city codes because it’s not TCI.