Rising Sun commissioners approve three emergency ordinances and appointments to new appeals board

Rising Sun commissioners voted unanimously during their September meeting to adopt three emergency ordinances aimed at resolving code inconsistencies and to approve a resolution naming three residents to a newly proposed code enforcement appeals board.

The town administrator told commissioners the measures clarify how the town charges impact or benefit-assessment fees, remove an outdated reference to taxing commercial inventory, and consolidate appeals of building and fire code decisions under a single appeals board. "Our benefit assessment fees are meant to have development that now has the ability to develop to have to pay a fair share towards what was spent in the past," the town administrator said, describing the ordinances' purpose as aligning town practice with state authority.

The second ordinance removes language in chapter 9 of the town code that referred to taxing commercial inventory, a change the town said is intended to keep the community competitive for business investment. "So all this ordinance is doing is striking a line out of the existing, ordinance that basically, eliminates, the words including commercial inventory," the town administrator said.

A third ordinance would create one code-enforcement appeals board to hear appeals across the town's building and fire codes and organize appointment procedures through a resolution approved by the commissioners. The resolution (2023-17) named three community volunteers as nominees to serve on the board: Charles "Chip" Slabaugh, David Klein, and Judith Fisher. The town administrator noted appointees must be town residents or property owners.

Commissioner Braun moved to approve the consent agenda; Commissioner Kleiner seconded. The chair called for the vote, commissioners responded "Aye," and the motion carried, adopting the ordinances and resolution as emergency measures.

The ordinances are intended as housekeeping and to codify current practice; town staff said they will provide implementation details and appointment procedures to the commission for formalization. The measures take effect under the town's emergency adoption process, and staff indicated they will circulate final ordinance text and next steps for appointments.