By Carrie Moritz, Gazette

Garretson City Councilor Brayden Beaner has been working through the City of Garretson's code book for the past few months, marking those ordinances that are no longer enforceable, no longer applicable, or hadn't been updated since the first half of the 20th century.

In that endeavor, he found over 50 codes that needed updating or a full repeal.

"In preparation for the [April 7] meeting, I watched Footloose for the first time because there's ordinances that prohibit public dancing," Beaner pointed out last Monday at the council meeting. "Most of them are from 1923."

Garretson has been well-known for many years for its love of street dances. 

And according to the ordinances published, any public dances were supposed to require an application to the Mayor for permission, and no establishment of a dance hall was to be allowed.

Obviously, this ordinance has not been enforced for quite some time. Today's street dances only require that an off-premise liquor license be applied for, and that plans to barricade the street are made with the permission of the council, along with ensuring the sheriff's department is aware of the event. The Legion dugout allows dances regularly, as does Blue Dragon Academy's event space.

And for many areas of Garretson's codes, there is a state law that supersedes the city law, either increasing the scope of the law, adding important exceptions, or increasing the penalty for violations.

Beaner has made the case since he joined the council that updating the city codes was important to ensure Garretson wasn't in conflict with the state or federal code. One of his first steps as councilor was to repeal the weapons ban that had been in effect for Garretson's city parks, pointing out that state law was adamant that no gun bans could be made or enforced.

"An example of kind of us needing to keep an eye on a code, I think is on the last page there," he said at the April council meeting. "We actually have our Covid ordinances still on the books. So, we still need to be practicing social distancing, and businesses need to be limited to 10 patrons."

It was an important oversight, as in May 2021, the council had repealed a resolution passed in November 2020 requesting masks be worn in public spaces in Garretson, but no evidence could be found of the council repealing Ordinance 656 from May 2020. 

Ordinance 656 had been passed to help reduce the load on hospitals in the area when COVID-19 came through, by limiting social gatherings and encouraging social distancing. 

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