Growing nuisance

There’s been a lot of rain during the month of June, and that means one thing — grass and weeds are going to be sky high.

For anybody who has to deal with mowing lawns, there are changes to the grass and weeds ordinances going through the city.

During a June 16 Osceola City Council meeting, the city council held a public hearing and approved the first reading of the various amendments to the grass and weeds ordinance.

What’s new

The first amendment was a change to eliminating the months where enforcement of weeds and grass occurs. Currently, it reads April through October. Now, it will eliminate the time window and state all weeds and brush shall not exceed a height of 8 inches, period.

“That will be enforced year round,” said Ty Wheeler, city administrator/clerk.

There’s also a new subsection that states every owner shall cut, mow and maintain grass, weeds and brush to the center line of any undeveloped city right-of-way, alley or street adjacent and abutting the owner’s property in such a manner, so as to be in conformity with and at an even height with all other grass, weeds or brush growing on the remainder of the owner’s property.

It is similar to what the existing ordinance reads for the area between the curb and the sidewalk, Wheeler said.

The third amendment is the section requiring that all property owners are given a 48-hour written notice to abate the nuisance before the city would proceed with enforcement.

Currently, the ordinance reads that notice to the property owners or notice to the city is given by the annual publication of the notice.

“We didn’t find (that) to be consistent with standard practice,” Wheeler said.

Debris on streets

The last part of the amendments is a new subsection dealing with placing debris on city streets. Now, it shall be unlawful for any person to throw or deposit on the city street leaves, grass or any other landscape debris likely to be washed in the storm sewer and clog the storm system.

It also establishes a fine schedule that starts with a written warning, then goes to fees to $50, $100 and $150.

The last part of the debris section states, after issuing warnings and fees city officials may clean landscape debris for a charge to the property owner of $75 per hour for the work, plus a surcharge of $100.

“That is the exact fee schedule that we currently use for the mowing infractions, so it’s consistent there,” Wheeler said.

Council concerns

Councilman Dan Hooper said he’s seen several properties where the grass is mowed, but the weeds aren’t cleaned up.

Dave Leonard, zoning administrator/building inspector, community development, clarified many of the council’s questions.

“We’ll just have to use our discretion with some of that,” Leonard said. “Yeah, I mean, there are some of them that are bad, and I’ve noticed them before for not cleaning up the curb line. I mean, if they’ve got little sprigs up against their mailbox or something, I probably won’t ding them for that.”

However, Councilman Dennis Page added, “What it looks like in some yards is if they can’t get it with the riding lawn mower, to hell with it.”

“That’s exactly it,” Hooper said.