There was a disagreement over a city ordinance between the council and a new resident during Tuesday night’s Granby City Council meeting.
Jerry Gamble, currently of Grove, Okla., and soon to be a resident of Granby, would like to build a house at Lot 14 in Gum Springs Estates.
Until the house is built, he wants to live in a travel trailer on the property.
City ordinance states that Granby citizens cannot live in a trailer on their property unless they are doing so for a limited, agreed-upon amount of time. All the Granby City Council needed to know was the time frame of when Gamble would move into the trailer and how long it would take to complete the house.
Unfortunately, Gamble did not yet have an answer to that question.
“All we really need is just a date you’re going to move in and start living there, and an approximate date that you’re going to start building,” said mayor pro-tem Carol Sparnicht.
In his defense, Gamble noted that he has seen three or four residences with travel trailers already around town. Sparnicht replied that those people were not following city ordinances and that “two wrongs don’t make a right.”
“Just because those people are doing something wrong doesn’t mean it’s OK for someone else to do something wrong,” Sparnicht said.
Gamble’s brother, Ken Gamble, spoke up in Jerry’s defense, saying that he has never seen a city ordinance before preventing people from living in travel trailers.
“It never existed,” Ken Gamble said. “I can take you to court and prove it…I’ve never been in a city that you couldn’t have a trailer because of construction.”
Upon being told again that the ordinance did exist, and that the council had a copy of it in the meeting, Ken Gamble said, “I think it’s a silly ordinance.”
The council again reminded the Gamble brothers that living in a travel trailer could be permitted as long as the council knew and agreed to the time frame. Jerry Gamble still did not give a time frame.
In the end, the council voted to give Jerry Gamble 90 days to live in his travel trailer, but that number of days can be extended based on the construction progress made in that time.
In other news from Granby City Council:
• During the July 28 council meeting, the council tabled the issue of whether Granby resident Steve Clark could keep a mobile home used for storage on his property until they had a chance to re-examine the ordinance. Clark hopes to eventually make the mobile home a workshop. The Granby City Council told him last night he could use the mobile home for those reasons because it was for his business and not a residence. Also, Clark will modify the building and make it resemble the other buildings on his property.
