Getting in the weeds

Weeds around the city were a topic of concern and discussion brought up during Tuesday night's City Council meeting. 

"This is not our job, this is the city's job," Renae Cynova said of mowing the weeds along the right of way by her house. "The city needs to step up, the street crew needs to step up, and they need to do their job."

Cynova spoke during the citizen requests portion of the council meeting to ask the council members to address the problem of weeds in the city, particularly those along the right of way on Astle Avenue where she lives. She said that she and her husband bought their property in 2013, and since then the city has mowed the weeds on the right of way only once that they're aware of. Cynova said she and her husband usually mow the weeds themselves, and if they didn't the problem would be much worse, but that taking care of the weeds is not their responsibility. 

Cynova reached out to council members about the weeds, saying she sent them emails and asked them to drive by the property to see the problem. She also noted that she spoke to Councilmember George Jost, who told her he would email the appropriate people, and the next day she woke up to a citation on her door with a warning about needing to take care of the weeds. 

"Where was the breakdown in communication from me complaining about the weeds to me getting a nuisance ticket warning?" she asked, adding that the nuisance officer should know his job. 

When Cynova's husband called about the warning, he was told that they should mow the weeds themselves, according to Cynova. The city's two options, she said, are to either step up, because she and her husband are "done," or for the city to deed them the land, in which case they would happily take care of the weeds themselves. 

"If neither of these happen, then maybe I should start calling the nuisance officer on the city," Cynova said. 

Mary Williams approached the council after Cynova to discuss the same issue. She introduced herself as the wife of Councilmember Ron Williams. 

"Don't think he doesn't get the complaints at home," she said. 

Mary explained that she also has a problem with the weeds around town. 

"Our city sidewalks look like crap, our right of ways look like crap, and our alleyways look like crap," Mary said. 

The weed problem is also creating other problems with things like mosquitoes, rodents, and tumbleweeds, Mary said. She pointed out that they've talked to Reed Clevenger about some of the issues around town, with it taking varying amounts of time to get things done about complaints.

"I don't even want to hear 'we don't have the budget or the employee staff to do it,' because we do," Mary added. 

Councilmember Ron Williams spoke in response to the public comments, noting he's received numerous complaints and that he's been talking with Reed Clevenger about the issue for over a month. Williams agreed that the weeds are a problem, pointing out that some alleys have weeds that are three or four feet tall, and it wouldn't take much for something to set them on fire and cause significant damage. 

"The city needs to step up," Councilmember Williams said. "We could do it now and it would be done."

He added that he believes the city has the time to address the issue, estimating it could be done in two weeks with one full-time employee and a few seasonal employees. He said he's almost to the point of wanting to hook a mower to a John Deer tractor and take care of it himself, but he believes the city needs to work with its directors and get things done. 

 "We gotta get a little aggressive, be more proactive instead of reactive," Councilmember Williams said. "We see a problem, we gotta get on it before the citizens get on us."

Councilmember Gary Killpack expressed his opinion that the council meeting is not the best place to discuss the issue, and that it would be more appropriate to handle it in a workshop. He also added that his son-in-law deals with the same issue and takes care of it himself, and that people in the community being proactive helps make everything better. 

Councilmember Sherry Bushman expressed a similar sentiment during her comments at the end of the meeting, noting the work that needs to be done by both the citizens and the city. 

"I would love to see this town be a Tidy Town, and there's criterias to be part of that. But there's a lot of people that really need to step up on their own," she said. "It takes a lot of work. That'll take a long time to do. But it's a good goal to have and I think we should try to strive for it at some point. It doesn't hurt to start at any time, right? The present time is now." 

While a workshop to discuss the issue was suggested, it was also noted that the city will be going over a draft document over the next month to discuss goals for the city, and Councilmember Robert Berg said that it looked like lots of citizen complaints would be addressed during that process.