"We have a real serious problem," Mackinaw City Village President Ron Wallin declared Thursday, December 4, as he began the council's examination of blighted buildings in the downtown area. The discussion, however, quickly turned into a search for definitions of blight and what legal power the village would need to fight it.

The village council agreed to turn the issue over to attorney Tom Evashevski to look into how the village should proceed against owners of vacant buildings that have deteriorated beyond repair.

"The mission," said Mr. Wallin, "is to get a mechanism in place that will let us take more aggressive action."

Mr. Wallin cited four examples of what he regards as blight, including an abandoned service station and an inn in disrepair, and a four-unit apartment property.

He described the inn as "beyond the point of repair and rehabilitation, and I, for one, consider that unacceptable. Anyone with a little civic pride must not let that happen."

Village Manager Jeff Lawson explained that under current ordinances there isn't much that the village can do about what Mr. Wallin described as blight in unoccupied buildings. The village can order junk removed from yards, but it is a long way from having the power, as do some Michigan communities, to condemn blighted properties, tear them down, and remove them after court procedures.

County inspectors, for example, have been through the apartment building several times and have found no violation of health or building codes, Mr. Lawson reported.

"If there's not an exposed wire coming out of the wall that could electrocute someone, then it's not a code violation. It's just old," he said.

If the county has found nothing to enforce, Mr. Lawson said, "then it's hard for the village to go in and say, 'You have to do a higher standard than state building codes.'"

Mr. Wallin acknowledged that the problem is more complex than it appears. Some owners may not have the money to fix up properties, especially in the current economy. Others may simply like to "collect things" in their yards, and it's a question of whether they should be barred from doing that.

Trustee Jeff Hingston said, "We're all aware of these properties. We've heard about them from the public a number of times. I say let's step up to the plate. If someone is going to be irresponsible and not take care of a piece of property, then it's time for this body to do something about it."