Councilmember: New law could enlist landlord help on drug houses

Grand Coulee is still considering an ordinance addressing the problem of drug houses.

Councilmember Tom Poplawski updated the council on the endeavor the city started looking at earlier this year. A nuisance or drug house, with a history of crimes occuring there, or of people being charged with crimes while staying there, could be boarded up for a year.

In such an instance, the city would report the house, and a Grant County Superior Court judge would look at the case to approve or deny the seizure of the property.

Poplawski said he has learned that since closing down a drug house would have to involve the superior court, cities don’t need to have their own ordinance to initiate the process, as was previously thought, since state law already covers it.

Poplawski still recommends that the city adopt its own ordinance “so that it’s all up front and the public is aware of this.”

The idea is to remove drug activity from neighborhoods, as well as to discourage landlords from renting to drug users or dealers, because if the house is seized for a year, the landlord couldn’t rent to anybody.

“It’s just another tool in the tool bag to say that, if it gets to this point, this is what we can do and we’re ready to do it,” Poplawski said. “That’s all we’re trying to accomplish. Hopefully we can get it all mitigated just by having that law in effect and know that the public knows it’s in effect. Police can inform the people that this is what can happen as a result of their inaction to take care of the drug situations on their properties. It may all just go away because nobody wants to deal with it on this other level. I want to be prepared for this.”

Poplawski said that a recommendation for an ordinance may be ready for the council’s approval at the next meeting Oct. 16.