Newly elected William Fells has gotten busy.
Fells sponsored a couple of pieces of legislation, and both are now the law of the land.
One was to get on the proactive side of vape and smoke shops. Fells, copying legislation from another city, said it would be a good thing to limit where these businesses could be located. Specifically, he said, they shouldn’t be allowed to be put near schools and places of worship.
“This is something that’s likely to proliferate especially in a community like Pine Bluff and you know research shows that oversaturation comes with different health and safety issues,” said Fells. “A lot of municipalities are adopting (such laws) all around the country. … This is actually a replica of what they’re doing in North Little Rock, and it’s just going to help the city be more proactive and limiting where these places can set up shop.”
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
We don’t have a huge bone to pick on this topic, but churches, which are everywhere and mostly vacant, would seem to be able to handle themselves against the sins of the world, not to mention a few packs of Camels. But we do see the logic in steering such businesses away from the impressionable.
Perhaps the better of the two proposed ordinances was the one giving the city more teeth in taking action regarding abandoned, wrecked and inoperable vehicles, as in hauling them off. There was once a neighbor in another town and another state who had what seemed to be dozens of the above cars and trucks in his yard. After the city swooped in, the whole neighborhood sort of perked up since what seemed to be the start of a good haunted house was now more presentable.
“We’re just giving code enforcement a bit more authority to actually, you know, get those vehicles removed,” Fells told the City Council.
Exactly.
Kudos to Fells. He’s a new kid on the block, but having worked in the previous administration, he knows a thing or two about what’s ailing Pine Bluff. The city, no doubt, will get to know him well over the next few years if his first couple of months in office are an indication.