once again the wonderful county has deciede how i should spend my time, seems that the land on the side of the road which is mine but can be taken at any time by them has grass that is higher then they like. i was told a "neighbor " called to report i was inviolation of the grass height code, never heard of it. well in the county if your lawn gets higher then 8 in. and someone complains you are given 48 hrs. to mow or the county will mow and you will be given a bill. now its realy not my land, i am going to be fighting this one. i bet if i plant a tree there they will complain, guess i better grab a shovel !

-- renee oneill (oneillsr@home.com), July 27, 2000

Answers

Go for it! I'd call the county commish' and complain!!!! Either it's our land or theirs????Make them explain it to you(in writing)

-- Debbie T in N.C. (rdtyner@mindspring.com), July 27, 2000.

There is a guy in southern California that has been fighting the county for years because the wanted his land for a shopping mall. When the County first started hassling him he went out and planted California Redwoods on the property which are a protected tree. The county hasn't been able to bring themselves to move or cut the trees, so he still has his land.

Little Bit Farm

-- Little bit Farm (littlebit@calinet.com), July 27, 2000.

I don't bother much with the right of way in front of my place - especially since it's mostly drainage ditch. If I'm feeling ambitious and have an extra 30 minutes I'll weed whack it, to discourage snakes and bugs. But it's been a busy summer so I haven't done much of that lately. Figure if they claim it, they can maintain it. And when the grass gets too tall for their liking the town sends a mower down the ENTIRE road and mows all of the right of way on both sides for the entire length of the road.

-- Eric in TN (ems@nac.net), July 27, 2000.

Kill 'Em With Kindness, Renee...

One of my neighbors down the road planted his entire frontage on the street with wild flowers and flowering ground cover. He placed a DO NOT MOW sign at the front end. The county respects his wishes, the flowers don't grow as high as uncut grass would grow and some people actually slow down to admire the color. Now other neighbors with hard- to-cut ditches and embankments are finding out what they can grow that's inexpensive and easy to maintain. One of the favorites is purple ajuga. It grows fast, but not higher than 3 to 4 inches. The county likes it because that's less for them to mow, so saves them gas and wear and tear on their mowing equipment.

If you can convince officials of money saving ideas, they should listen. Never mind that it looks pretty, too.

(:raig

-- Craig Miller (CMiller@ssd.com), July 27, 2000.

There has been all kinds of cases in larger cities around here about problems such as yours! If you're really serious about fighting the county on this, call in the NEWS MEDIA!!! I'm a reporter and I'm sure there's probably a reporter in your area that is tired of the government trying to dictate every avenue of your life. Call around until you find one!!!

-- Suzy in 'Bama (slgt@yahoo.com), July 27, 2000.

The county or highway dept. just had me move my fence back 75 feet from the center line. Supposedly to be able to maintain the culverts. Which is in reality at the far west corner of our property. In ten years I have seen them pick up one dead dog and put up one new road sign ( which by the way is a target for every person looking to litter or shoot a gun for miles around.) Cans and bottles galore. I wonder if I would be out of line asking them to keep it mowed and to clean up the litter thrown at their sign. Which we used to do. I tell you I have had to have more than one tetnas shot because of the litter in the time we have lived here. When I asked the guy that told us we had to move the fence about when they would mow he said that they hire it out and the folks that mow only mow three times a year. Twice back ten feet and one time all the way back to the property lines. I hate to think about what this place would look like if it was only mowed three times a year. ( that's if they actually did mow three times) I am thinking about planting trees . My biggest problem is how to keep people from turning around and parking in the bigger place now. It was bad enough before but now it's more inviting. We have had people smoking (something in a coke can), changing diapers and throwing them out.Stopping just to fight with each other and just generally loiter. Not to mention all the turn arounds. I hate to sound unsocial : but what the heck these people aren't being social: they are being a bother. I have spent ten years working on this place and I hate the thought of starting over ( NOT TO MENTION THE HARD WORK ) But it is getting

-- Bonnie (josabo1@juno.com), July 27, 2000.

The county or highway dept. just had me move my fence back 75 feet from the center line. Supposedly to be able to maintain the culverts. Which is in reality at the far west corner of our property. In ten years I have seen them pick up one dead dog and put up one new road sign ( which by the way is a target for every person looking to litter or shoot a gun for miles around.) Cans and bottles galore. I wonder if I would be out of line asking them to keep it mowed and to clean up the litter thrown at their sign. Which we used to do. I tell you I have had to have more than one tetnas shot because of the litter in the time we have lived here. When I asked the guy that told us we had to move the fence about when they would mow he said that they hire it out and the folks that mow only mow three times a year. Twice back ten feet and one time all the way back to the property lines. I hate to think about what this place would look like if it was only mowed three times a year. ( that's if they actually did mow three times) I am thinking about planting trees . My biggest problem is how to keep people from turning around and parking in the bigger place now. It was bad enough before but now it's more inviting. We have had people smoking (something in a coke can), changing diapers and throwing them out.Stopping just to fight with each other and just generally loiter. Not to mention all the turn arounds. I hate to sound unsocial : but what the heck these people aren't being social: they are being a bother. I have spent ten years working on this place and I hate the thought of starting over ( NOT TO MENTION THE HARD WORK ) But it is getting too crowed here for me.

-- Bonnie (josabo1@juno.com), July 27, 2000.

I read a notice in one of the papers that a county here has some sort of ordinance that the right of wayis the resposability of the landowner AND if you don't have it mowed proper by snowfall they won't be able to snowplow your roadway! We are in North Dakota BTW!!!

-- Novina in ND (lamb@stellarnet.com), July 27, 2000.

Wow, did I pick the right place for my final move or what? I moved an electric fence closer to the road at the suggestion of the country highway department. Said it made mowing easier for them since they only had to make one pass with the mower.

Of course, there is a little back-scratching here in that they come and get creek gravel off of my place for free.

Renee: If you check your deed you will probably find you own to the center of the road. The highway department just has a right-of- way. Same thing as another property owner having a right-of-way across your property to get to their place.

If you don't think you are getting proper service from the highway department then do go talk to the commissioner for your district, the county highway chief, your county exectutive, or whatever these positions would be. Be nice. They are elected officials who probably want to be reelected.

God I love Waverly, TN. So far not the least problems some of you are having trouble with. Great neighbors. More spring water than I could ever possibly use. County has been extremely cooperative on everything I wanted to do. Extremely low crime rate. Schools are decent. Infrastructure is there, but not in depth. People go out of their way to help you. Yeh, some minor problems, but they are just that.

-- Ken S. (scharabo@aol.com), July 28, 2000.

New york city entered into a watershed agreement with a number of upstate counties. One area was inundated with floods a couple of years ago so somehow the City got with FEMA and bought a bunch of properties in this little hamlet only to let the properties become overgrown. Well the townfolks like any good neighbors were maintaining the city owned parcels until the NYS version of EPA posted signs that anyone caught mowing these properties would be arrested. Seems their greatest concern is that these good neighbors would be eligible for squatters rights if they were allowed to continue to mow for a certain number of years. Now the town supervisor is thinking of asking all the county officials to gas up their lawnmowers and see if the DEP shows up to arrest them. This is all taking place 120 miles from that great city which needs to declare itself a sovreign state and leave the rest of us alone.

-- Peter (pdfitz@mkl.com), July 30, 2000.

Tell them its a hay field and your bale when its time -:)

-- Gary (Gws@redbird.net), August 03, 2000.