The latest local news, weather and high school sports from the Heartland

OTTUMWA, IOWA -- The Ottumwa Health Department is one of the busiest departments within the municipality. From inspecting local restaurants to properties around the city making sure that they are livable and safe, employees are on the go non-stop.

Inspectors within the department follow a set of codes that were created so that people live in a safe and clean environment; however, some codes are outdated.

Jody Gates, Director of the Ottumwa Health Department, informed KTVO that she and others within the city have come to the conclusion that some of the codes that are in place need to be updated.

“It gets difficult sometimes to use codes that we prepared in the 1960s to solve issues in 2011. So, I think that we are going to review them again, which is always a good thing, to look at your city codes on a regular basis. We will ask for two city council members to be on our team and we will also ask for some citizens to be on the review group as well,” said Gates.

At a recent city council meeting, the city sold a couple of properties that were placarded.

“Placarded houses, those are like nuisances and issues outside the property. If you have problems within the house, if you think the house doesn’t meet minimal housing code standards, we would send a building inspector to perform an inspection,” said Gates.

Gates explained to us how that process works.

“We would send notice to the property owner, let them know that we received a complaint about the property, and ask that they let us in to conduct an inspection,” said Gates.

In most cases, the home owner is compliant with the health inspector entering the home, but there are cases, according to Gates where a police officer has been called in to assist the inspector while they are completing their inspection. 

When the city sells a placarded home, the new owner works with the city on a specific timeline to bring the home up to code. In some cases, that could be costly, but some homes throughout the community have been revitalized through this process.