By Jill Summerville

For Miami Valley Today

PIQUA — Piqua City Commission held a second reading of Ordinance O-6-23, proposing regulations for landlords managing private properties or properties provided by the federal government’s Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) at its meeting on Tuesday, July 18.

Landlords and realtors in attendance expressed that landlords might not have sufficient protection against late rent payments or tenants’ deliberate destruction of rental property.

Some residents in attendance were concerned these new regulations might too greatly limit landlords’ autonomy as individuals and as business people. Some residents suggested public buildings should be held to the same standards for repairs as landlords’ properties, or the ordinance should be used to improve public buildings that give residents of the city of Piqua a feeling of communal ownership and civic pride.

The Piqua City Commission has not yet approved this ordinance. The Commission declined to read the ordinance aloud, as the entire document is available online.

Other resolutions approved at the commission’s July 18 meeting included:

• Awarding a contract to Double Jay Construction for the Downtown Tree Replacement Project;

• Awarding a purchase order for the new salt storage cellar to be built at 859 S. Main St. to Greystone Construction.

Additionally, the Piqua City Commission expressed its appreciation for the invaluable public service of city of Piqua employee, John Richard.

The writer is a regular contributor to Miami Valley Today.