As the city of Elizabethtown prepares to begin enforcement of its new recovery residence certification ordinance, the city has sworn in the person who will be tasked with keeping the facilities in check.
The city posted on the City of Elizabethtown Government Facebook page that former Elizabethtown Police Department Officer David Neary has been sworn in as the city’s Recovery Residence Enforcement Officer. Neary returns to service after retiring from the EPD in 2015.
Recovery residences must be in compliance with the city’s ordinance by March 15. Neary will be in charge of inspecting the facilities, of which there are more than 150 in the city. A first violation will result in a $500 per day fine, and a second violation increases the fine to $1,000 a day.
When discussing the ordinance with facility owners January 29, city attorney Ken Howard said the city is prepared to back up its new enforcement officer.
“The City of Elizabethtown is committed to its ordinance, and is committed to enforcing state law,” Howard said. “They have amended the budget last month, and have hired an individual on a full-time basis that will be the compliance officer for recovery residence law in the city of Elizabethtown.”
Elizabethtown Mayor Jeff Gregory said it is important for the city to get ready for enforcement quickly in order to prevent problems from developing later on.
“It’s not everybody, and we realize that,” Gregory said. “We know that, but there are some apples in the cart that, as you all know in any profession or anything that we do, spoil the whole bunch sometimes, so it was imperative that we look into what the issues were and try and put some kind of enforcement in place or certification, regulation in place so we could find out who is who” Gregory said.
The ordinance is available for viewing on the city’s website.
