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Elkhart City Council approves ordinance allowing fines for violators of fats, oils and grease ordinance

The FOG ordinance, as it’s known, aims to control the discharge of grease from restaurants into the city’s sewer system.

ELKHART — Listen up, restaurant operators who have yet to comply with Elkhart’s fats, oils and grease ordinance.

The Elkhart City Council has tweaked the way the city administers the rule, finally allowing for enforcement of the ordinance, aimed at regulating the discharge of grease from restaurants into the city’s sewer system. More specifically, the city now has authority to fine those restaurant operators — 60 as of late March — who have yet to register with the city, outlining how they handle grease. The ordinance calls for an initial $50 fine for not registering, which increases every 30 days to $100, $200 and $250.

The city approved the ordinance last year, requiring restaurant operators to register with the city and let city representatives inspect their grease handling systems. A special Elkhart Board of Public Works meeting had been scheduled last month to discuss issuing violation notices to operators who hadn’t yet registered. But it was canceled after one of the city’s legal representatives said the city first had to change the way it enforces the law.

Carol McDowell, president of the Elkhart Board of Public Works, said Tuesday that that the body would take up the issue of the violation notices at its on May 4. With Monday’s action by the council, the board has authority to issue the fines.

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Council members didn’t discuss what comes next. But they debated the broader aims of the ordinance, which is meant to minimize clogging in city sewers caused by grease.

Councilman Brian Dickerson, who voted against Monday’s measure, had called on city officials to revisit the ordinance with an eye to crafting a “stronger grandfather clause” granting lenience for established eateries. The ordinance outlines when restaurants have to install grease-control devices, which can be costly.

Council members Mary Olson and Dwight Fish defended it.

“We really do need to protect our water system, and a FOG ordinance is vital to that,” Fish said.

Operators of two businesses earlier this month lamented the rules, saying the grease-control requirements were hampering their operations. Greater Elkhart Chamber of Commerce President Kyle Hannon, though, offered a defense of the requirements.

Restaurant operators in Goshen, he said, have faced even more stringent regulation, and Elkhart is just catching up.

“Sooner or later, we have to protect our pipes,” Hannon said at Monday’s meeting.

Also Monday, the council took the first step toward granting partial property tax breaks to Shield Restraint Systems, Inc., and Cleer Vision Tempered Glass, LLC, which are planning expansions that would create a total of 51 new jobs. The council declared each of the proposed expansion areas an “economic revitalization area,” which is the first step in the process. Public hearings are set for May 2 to formally consider the tax abatements.

http://www.elkharttruth.com/hometown/elkhart/2016/04/20/Elkhart-City-Council-approves-ordinance-allowing-fines-for-violators-of-fats-oils-and-grease-ordinance.html