Council Votes To Clean Up Property

The yard outside a North Side home poses a danger to neighbors, so the city is sending in a crew to clean it up.

The city council earlier this week voted unanimously to spend nearly $2,700 to remove six trees and cut down tall weeds and grasses in the yard at 1318 E. Rich.

The home has been vacant for 12 years, said Bob Eugene, the city’s building official.

Owner Wayne Lammers is in a nursing home.

“This is a safety issue,” Eugene told the council.

Usually, the city doesn’t get involved when neighbors complain about problem trees on private property, Eugene said. In this case, the homeowner can’t take care of the problem himself.

Because the trees are in imminent danger of being pushed over by wind and falling onto a city street, they must be removed, Eugene said.

A lien will be placed on the property so that taxpayers will be repaid for removal costs once the house is sold, Eugene said.

, DataTimes