To the editor:

Our city commissioners, the five individuals that represent the citizens of Piqua not the city manager or our law director, will be voting on this program at the next meeting.

The city manager and law director want them to pass a program that requires a property owner to buy a permit, giving the property owner the right to rent out their property.

The city will be in charge of the inspection(s) of said properties and will determine if you receive their permission to rent the property.

The city manager and law director say that this is for the safety of people and to make sure that the property is up to code. I do agree 100% that properties need to be maintained and have curb appeal,rental or owner occupied.

The issue is that property owners do not need a permit to rent out their home. You do not need to register your rental property with city. You file city taxes, therefore they have access to all addresses that are used as a rental.

The city already has a program to enforce the codes. It has failed the last 25 years. If the code enforcer would be aloud to do his job without being told to go after certain property owners, the existing program would work.

Bottomline is that we are asked to trust our city to give fair inspections and work with property owners on getting those issues fixed. The city can not be trusted to run this program. They bulldozed a mans house while he was in the process of remodeling his home. He had permits pulled and approval from the county to continue with the project. This is how the city works with people.

If you look at our city compared to 20 years ago, there have been millions invested from individuals buying and remodeling properties. There is still more that needs done but it is a huge improvement across the city compared to what it was.

So I ask the city commissioners to vote no on this issue. Be more aware of what our city is doing and conducting business. The program we have now works, if it is ran properly.

I also ask that all property owners keep working on their properties, work with the city code enforcer and continue to work on making the city’s housing. Rental or owner occupied.

Deron Yingst

Piqua