Leader Staff
The summer tourist season officially opens this weekend, but the typical summer complaints of city code violations are already well under way.
The Shawano Police Department, which started last year putting a renewed emphasis on quality-of-life issues in the city, is reminding residents about ordinances covering such things as grass length, weed control, abandoned vehicles and excessive clutter in neighborhood yards.
“We’ve already been getting complaints,” said Lydia Buntrock, one of the department’s three community service officers.
Most of the complaints have been about tall grass.
“When we get over there, if it’s kind of on the borderline, we do have rulers,” she said. “As long as it’s 6 inches or less, then we let it go.”
If it’s more than 6 inches, the property owner gets a copy of the city ordinance informing them of the rules and giving them 24 hours to get their grass cut.
“If we come by and the grass isn’t cut, we contact one of our vendors, and they will cut the grass,” Buntrock said.
That cost is then added to the property owner’s tax bill.
Buntrock said most people are cooperative when they’re told their grass is too long.
She said at this early point in the season some people haven’t gotten their lawn mowers out of storage yet. Other people might not be aware of the rules or aware their grass is getting out of hand, she said.
Buntrock said the community service officers aren’t out with their rulers measuring grass length lawn by lawn, but if they spot grass that’s obviously overgrown they’ll contact the property owners and give them the 24-hour notice.
One additional thing property owners might soon have to consider is where their clippings go when the grass is cut.
The city’s field committee will consider some new code language when it meets next week that would add grass clippings to the city’s littering ordinances.
Public Works Coordinator Eddie Sheppard said there have been complaints about cut grass being blown onto city sidewalks and streets.