We recently completed our annual Spring Clean Claremore campaign, and it gets us thinking about mowing the lawn and planting flowers. However, sometimes folks like to moan and groan about neighbors not mowing often enough. And surely it must because the neighbor is lazy or just wants the whole neighborhood to look bad, right?
Wrong.
We received some information from Claremore Code Enforcement that we would like to pass on. There are times when the code officers receive complaints that the person’s neighbor won’t mow the lawn. Sometimes the code enforcement officer is aware that the homeowner is either disabled and truly needy or is doing everything they can to save up for a lawn mower. Many times, the problem can be easily fixed if we simply talk to our neighbors and see how we can help. Perhaps that means letting them borrow our mower until they save the money to buy one themselves or just mowing a little more grass to help them out. There have actually been instances in Claremore of an elderly citizen scooting around on a rolling stool cutting grass with scissors to prevent complaints. Both of the Claremore code enforcement officers are currently working with their church outreach groups to help organize clean-up days for those who are truly in need of help with their code violations.
This year, if you have an issue with your neighbor’s property, try talking it out before reporting it. Maybe you’ll learn something you didn’t know, and maybe you’ll even make a new friend.
