Homeowners who don’t mow their grass in the northeast Ohio city of Canton now face stiffer penalties — including possible jail time.
The city council unanimously passed a law Monday that makes a second high-grass violation a fourth-degree misdemeanor carrying a fine of up to $250 and as many as 30 days in jail.
The previous law only made the first violation a minor misdemeanor, with a fine of up to $150 but no jail time. The new law is to take effect in 30 days.
“This is the type of action we need to take in order to clean up our neighborhoods and our city,” Mayor William J. Healy II said.
The laws are an effort to reduce the roughly $250,000 the city spends to cut about 2,000 private lots each year and to address public complaints, Councilman Greg Hawk has said.
I remember the first time I got a call from my alderperson in Evanston telling me personally to cut my grass. She called both my home and my work and left messages. It was a bad day for me and called and left her a scathing message back. Whoops. I later appologized to her.
At least there wasn’t any jail time involved.
Wow! What a nutty town.
One time the city told my parents that our grass was too tall. My dad went around with a yard stick and took pictures of the three-foot tall weeds on various city-owned lots. They backed down. 🙂
Throw all those non-grass cutting miscreants in jail! It’s about time something was done about the high grass. Why I remember when I was a kid everybody cut their grass in a timely fashion. LOL!
I’m sure the price of gas has absolutely nothing to do with the grass getting a little high.
Hmmm… I wonder if the College Football Hall of Fames mows its grass on a regular basis!
I’m torn on this issue. I would hate to see a nasty, overgrown house in my neighborhood. At the same time, I feel people should be able to do what they want. A tough one…
This law seems like quite a stern one for ohio homeowners. Hopefully, no one does jail time for it.
Seems quite unusual. Was there no other measure taken to combat the problem? Other than spending tax payers money to construct a law to fine and punish those that fail to keep up the appearance of a freshly manicured lawn and attach to it a misdeamenor! Seem to harsh to me. I certainly believe keeping a home and it’s landscape well taken care of is important. I mean really, if you don’t want to do the work, get an apartment! But fines and jail time, there’s got to be another way.
I guess this would be an additional work load for lawn homeowners to keep off their grasses on ground. What a diligent law to mandate all those that have lawn in their areas. I think it’s also for the safety and beautification of your territory.
What! A “fourth-degree misdemeanor carrying a fine of up to $250 and as many as 30 days in jail.” I’m all for keeping up appearances. After all this helps keep the housing value prices up, but that seems a little extreme. Can you imagine being put in jail, and someone asking what are you in for? I Let my lawn get unruly :). Ha ha!
Wow that’s pretty harsh. This is what lawn services are for!