Fremont County Code Enforcement officials Walter Elkins and Robert Sapp detailed their 2004 annual report to the Fremont County Commissioners at a recent meeting. The officers reported that they handled 119 code enforcement cases through the Planning and Zoning Department last year. That is down from 176 cases handled in 2003. Most of the cases investigated are initiated by complaints from neighbors. Elkins and Sapp say sixty-seven percent have come into compliance with zoning regulations. Sapp says only nine cases were forwarded to the county attorney in 2004 for possible legal action.
The code officers say they are currently investigating 30 code violation cases. Sapp says a lot of complaints tend to come from the Penrose area. He says that is a target area for code enforcement because a lot of people tend to notice that area first as they enter Fremont County on Highway 115.
Sapp and Elkins are both retired law enforcement officers. Because they have been threatened in the past when contacting property owners to enforce code violations, the officers say they typically approach a property owner together. Elkins says the success they have in clearing up code violations is not in taking people to court, but instead relying on voluntary compliance which includes giving property owners sufficient time to take care of the problem before a written violation is ever issued.
