Board of Appeals upholds $435 nuisance-abatement charge for 755 North Eleventh Street

The Board of Appeals voted to reject an appeal of a nuisance-abatement billing and upheld a $435 charge for snow and ice removal at 755 North Eleventh Street. The abatement work was performed Jan. 22, 2025; the contractor invoice was $290 and staff applied a $145 administrative fee.

Ramon (Ray) Sandoval, the city code-enforcement inspector, presented the staff report and recommended the board uphold the cost. "It is the staff's recommendation that you uphold the cost of the nuisance abatement," Sandoval said, adding that the abatement followed the procedures and timeframes established in the municipal code and that photographs and the contractor invoice were included in the appeals packet.

Appellant Joan M. Gosar Bergert (appearing as Joan Bergert in the record) told the board she is an owner of HMSC LLC and lives in Idaho Falls; she said she did not see the posted notice in Laramie and argued that owners who live out of town lack an effective means to receive the visual posting used for abatement notices. Bergert supplied a letter and a follow-up email included in the appeal packet and compared Laramie's procedure with Idaho Falls practices in which code officers said they first send a letter and make door-to-door contact before billing.

Sandoval explained how the city selects contractors from an approved list, calls down the list to find availability, and that contractor prices vary by the work required. He said the code requires removal within 24 hours after a snow event and that snow-and-ice abatement is treated as an emergency under the cited code provisions. He also described the administrative-fee formula in code: an administrative fee equals either $100 or 50% of the abatement cost, whichever is greater.

After hearing staff and the appellant, a commissioner moved to "move to uphold the cost of a nuisance abatement for the property located at 755 North Eleventh Street, noting the city followed all appeals process requirements of LMC 8-32-230, and that the correct amount of $435 was charged for the work completed related to the abatement." The motion passed on a roll call: Pacino — aye; Evans — aye; Matamore — aye; O'Toole — aye; Schneider — aye; Moody — aye; (other commissioner) — aye, for a 7-0 result.

Why it matters: The decision affirms city code enforcement's use of emergency abatement for sidewalks after snow events and confirms the billing practice (contractor cost plus administrative fee) under Laramie Municipal Code.