Medaryville Rescinds Letters of Mowing Ordinance Violation

  
 
The Medaryville resident who was facing a number of violations of the town’s mowing ordinance has been let off the hook after he reportedly cleaned up the properties and is now in compliance. According to town council member Derrick Stalbaum, resident Brian Capouch has been hard at work over the last week or so getting the properties cleaned up and compliant with the ordinance.

Stalbaum said that because the properties in question are no longer in violation of the ordinance, the town council rescinded the letters that were sent to Capouch threatening to place a lien on his property if he did not comply with the ordinance. Capouch previously claimed that the town failed to inform him specifically of what his violations were and also asserted that the town’s ordinance was defective and in violation of state code. He also threatened to litigate if the town continued with their threats to place a lien on his property.

Stalbaum, however, said that they rescinded the letters because the properties are now in compliance, not because of any questions that were raised regarding the ordinance. He said the ordinance has been reviewed and is not in violation of state code, and stated that if it turned into a legal matter, he is not concerned.

“Even though we did rescind those letters for that one property owner, we are still holding that ordinance strong and that is something that we are still going to be enforcing throughout the remainder of the year. We are going to be working on updating it to make it better; however, we are still enforcing the current ordinance and we will continue to do that until it’s replaced or amended by something else,” said Stalbaum.

Stalbaum went on to explain that the council will likely make some minor tweaks to the ordinance to clarify what is and is not allowed. Currently, the ordinance does not allow for flowers taller than five inches; the revisions, he explained, would allow for aesthetic plants and likely increase the maximum height of grass and other plants. In addition, letters to be sent in the future will include a description of the plants in violation of the ordinance. This way, he said, property owners will be unable to say they don’t know what plants on their properties are in violation of the ordinance.