INDIANAPOLIS -
It ranks as one of the top complaints to the Mayor's Action Center - people calling to complain about tall grass and weeds - and this year, the city's getting more complaints than ever.
Kate Johnson with the city's Department of Code Enforcement said, so far, property inspections are up 70 percent this year over last, with more than double the number of properties mowed. She attributes it to the mild spring, which forced the city to start mowing three weeks early.
She said if it keeps up, "We could mow up to 20,000 properties," compared to 12,000 last year.
Like years past, the city has hired vendors to do the work. Johnson said 17 companies (some with multiple crews) are mowing, on average, 250 properties a day.
Thursday, a crew from Indy Land Services was on the city's east side mowing down a double lot where the weeds and grass were more than four feet high. Before getting started, they had to walk through the brush and remove as much trash as they could. Even then, some metal wiring got caught in one of the riding mowers.
Cody Pickle said mowing such properties is a lot different than the usual lawn care.
"You have to cut these (properties) 5-6 times before it looks like a normal house that gets cut once," he said, noting his four-man crew averages about 30 properties a day.
Several neighbors were glad to see the crew at work.
"I feel very good they came to do this. It's just an eyesore. I like to sit on the porch, but I don't want to come out and look at this," said Roberta Jones.
Joseph White agreed.
"It brings down property values and then the neighborhood looks a lot worse," he said.
Johnson said instead of waiting for calls to come into the Mayor's Action Center, inspectors are going out to areas which have been a problem in the past. If the weeds and grass are more than a foot high, the owner is sent a notice, giving them five days to mow. If they don't, the city assigns a crew and sends the owner a bill for $353.
"We are the most expensive lawn service in Marion County," Johnson said.
She said after getting the notice, about half the people take care of the problem. Of those who don't, fewer than five percent pay up voluntarily, but the collection rate is 30 percent, because the city files a lien against the property.
Johnson said the budget for the program is nearly a million dollars a year. She acknowledged if the problem continues to grow, they could run short, but added, "I think we're committed to getting the lawns mowed no matter what, so whatever we can do to help adjust the budget in the future, we're looking at some tweaks to the program in order to get all the properties mowed."
Stanley Toliver, who lives next to several overgrown properties along Capitol Avenue, hopes that's the case.
"Something needs to be done," he said. "It just kind of looks bad for the neighborhood."
Anyone wanting to report high weeds and grass, should call the Mayor's Action Center at 327-4MAC.
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