Vacant property proposal sent to Ordinance Committee

Havre City Council’s Vacant Properties Ad-Hoc Committee took the next step Thursday in creating a Vacant Properties Registry Ordinance, and a state representative said he plans to bring the issue up in next year’s Legislature, as well.

The council created the Ad-Hoc Committee in June 2017 after Montana State University-Northern grant writer Samantha Clawson raised concerns at council meetings about vacant properties being allowed to deteriorate. Her concerns included multiple properties that Sunrise Financial had obtained by buying tax liens, had not maintained and had either refused to sell t...