Kali Katerberg/Daily Mining Gazette The Village of South Range has a few additional areas of focus it will be pursuing in the coming year including ordinances around rental and zoning.

SOUTH RANGE — Discussing village rental and zoning ordinances and future budgetary concerns, the village council broached new areas of focus at their Thursday meeting.

Currently addressing blight ordinances, the council may soon be reworking village rental and zoning ordinances.

An area of concern for many residents, rental issues revolve around parking, care of a unit and too many tenants in a rental.

“Our zoning ordinances are pretty old and hard to follow and in need of a facelift,” said Trustee Craig Paoli in a report from the ordinance committee.

The ordinances in question have been amended many times over the years, creating a patchwork that can be difficult to follow.

The first steps will include creating a draft zoning ordinance for rentals and cleaning up the regular zoning ordinance.

The council also touched on financial concerns.

“As long as there’s no other floods or other bumps in the road, we should be able to pull off a year in the black still,” said Village President Justin Marier.

However, not far down the road, this year or next, the village will need to purchase a new grader for snow removal, a major purchase. With an approximately $253,000 equipment fund, the purchase will make things even tighter budget-wise as the village is trying to avoid operating on a deficit.

Marier requested the village start soliciting bids for the needed grader.