HAMILTON — A grassroots effort to deal with enforcements of an ordinance focusing on grass height in the City of Hamilton has resulted in city officials rethinking several of the rules and regulations.
But officials also noted some of the issues brought before the city council on Monday, April 21, were already under review prior to their being made aware of them through social media, and later, in person by resident Austin Calvert.
To recap, Calvert had received a letter from the city in early April, stating the grass in his yard was outside acceptable ranges. With work during the week, and several rainy weekends in a row, Calvert had been unable to mow his lawn. When he noticed several city properties whose grass seemed to be even longer than his own, he took to Facebook and made a video about the situation.
Taking the matter one step further, someone created a “35570 Grass Inspector” T-shirt, others posted their own videos and many responded to Calvert’s posting and shared similar issues, as well as their feelings about how local ordinances are enforced.
Although the Journal-Record does not usually write stories about Facebook postings, the matter has now reached the city council level, becoming news which must be reported.
Calvert began his remarks by stating he was present to speak about city ordinance number 497, and specifically, its rules on grass and weeds and how the ordinance was being enforced in the community.
“I’m a proud resident of Hamilton, Alabama, and have been for 29 years,“ he said. “I am also someone who wants to see our town stay safe and clean.”
He then said he felt officials were aware of his situation and the social media response.
“I had several people reach out, and what started out as just a joke turned into people bringing me all kind of concerns,” he said. “There were many allegations--maybe some things factual evidence--maybe some not. I’m not here to debate those things at all.
“My point in being here is to find a solution--not necessarily to point fingers. I want to work with you. I think we may need to rethink how this ordinance is applied.”
Calvert asked the council to consider a few small changes to the ordinance. Firstly, giving residents a grace period after rainy weather. Secondly, he asked that inspection notices be given out promptly to avoid mistakes. Thirdly, he asked if guidelines could be considered to take into account weather or other challenges.
“I’m not here to point fingers, but to find solutions,” he said. “I want to work with the city to make enforcement fair, and I urge you to review how the ordinance department handles these cases.”
Calvert suggested additional training or a community feedback process to improve communications, stating earlier he’d felt ordinance enforcement went from 0 to 100 in a shockingly short amount of time.
‘I understand this job is a hard job,” he said. “It’s a job that is going to bring you flack no matter how you handle it. And I think it’s even more important that we keep community relations at the forefront of our minds.”
Calvert also noted he was “not here to beat down anyone” and had removed several remarks from his Facebook post.
“I’ve never been one to jump on bandwagons in town or tear stuff down,” he said. “There’s a lot of stuff you guys deal with that’s over my head, for sure. But I think the residents deserve a system that supports us--not one that leaves us feeling targeted.
“I thank you for listening to me. I’m committed to helping Hamilton thrive, and I welcome the chance to discuss this further, and share the stories I’ve heard, even though I don’t think it would be necessary. So, let’s make ordinance 497 work for all of us--no matter the status, age or income. I appreciate you.”
Hamilton Mayor Bob Page thanked Calvert for speaking to the council before noting, “We’ve talked some already in a work session about some of the matters you addressed. We aren’t perfect. We do need ordinance enforcement. We won’t fire our ordinance man because there was a little misunderstanding of some sort, because we do need this.
“He does have a hard job, as you say. Nobody is going to say ‘Thank you for coming and giving me this notice.’”
The mayor expressed his belief in constructive feedback, and positive interactions between residents and city officials. He noted, “For the most part, we think it’s been positive, and we appreciate that.”
He mentioned the council had already taken into consideration in its last work session how weeds will spring up early in the year.
“We’re going to look at May as our first month of enforcement going forward,” he said. “So, we’ve already made some improvements. We’re going to look at the height of the grass in our ordinance. We may even make a change in that. We’ve taken into consideration what 12 inches looks like verses 18 inches, and we may amend that. We’re thinking on those terms. All the things you’ve mentioned, we are going to review.
“We went many, many years with the ordinance on the books, but nobody to even go out and check. We’ll get better at what we do as we go along. We know our ordinance man has a heart for the community. He grew up here. He’s been in school here.
“I think we can all come to a conclusion we need ordinance enforcement. And I don’t think you disputed that here tonight, and you do want to see a beautiful Hamilton, and we do also. I think the exercise in pointing out a few things is not a bad thing.
“We just don’t want to go overboard with it, and get to a point where people won’t allow us to do our jobs. We need ordinances, and we’ll have some enforcement on it. But we’re not going to throw anybody under the bus because they haven’t mowed their yard.
“The letter is pretty forgiving and even the nature of the letter--seven days. If someone says I can’t get it done in seven days, call in and we’ll give you two or three weeks--whatever is needed. It won’t be a problem going forward. Thank you for coming. We appreciate your input tonight.”
Councilor Wade Williams added he also appreciated Calvert addressing the council in person, and explained the council had been in the process of trying to amend the ordinance already, possibly even before Calvert received his letter.
He said the notice timeframe and the height of the grass were things they’d already been discussing. He mentioned the ordinance had been on the books since 1992, but had rarely been enforced.
Williams said the council appreciates people wanting to keep the city clean, with officials also receiving some feedback expressing gratitude for their overall efforts, as well.
But he also clarified, “Nobody is against you, Austin. You brought something to our attention, and we appreciate that. This is something that can be tweaked to be a little bit more fair to everybody. That’s what we want--we want to be fair to everybody.”
Williams also mentioned the city attorney had already been working on revisions to the ordinance, which will be made official through a vote in the near future.
“Those are changes, positive changes that are being made I think will be fair to everybody--all the citizens and the mayor and council,” he said.
Page spoke once more before the conversation ended, noting to him, littering is one of the largest problems that could be avoided. He urged residents to take their garbage home and put it in their garbage cans and let the city haul it away.
“That’s worse than overgrown grass,” he said. “Because when your lawnmower goes over that stuff, it just scatters it to the four winds and makes it even worse.”
He explained the city has a lot of issues, and ordinances are required.
“If we didn’t have some sort of ordinances in this town, we’d have the awfullest mess you’ve ever seen. So we just need to have good ordinances and follow them. We have to have ordinance enforcement and there’s no doubt about it.”
In other business, the council also:
• Approved the purchase of a John Deere 5060E Utility Tractor and a John Deere 520M Loader, from Tri Green Equipment in Cullman for the lowest state bid price of $45,654. This equipment will be purchased for use by the Hamilton Parks & Recreation Department and is a budgeted item.
• Approved the purchase of new thumb tine/grapple attachment, from Thompson CAT, for the lowest purchase price of $6,017. This equipment is for the Hamilton Street Department and is also a budgeted item.
• Approved the purchase of a heavy duty JMA Trailer for $7,000 from Load & Go Trailers in Hamilton. This trailer will be used to haul the new roller machine for paving, as well as additional heavy equipment already owned by the Hamilton Street Department. The council noted again this is a budgeted item, and explained discussions concerning these three equipment purchases were made during a previous council work session.
• Voted to accept the lowest bid price of $6,500 from Nix Heating & Cooling for a new three-ton split heat pump unit for Hamilton City Hall. The mayor noted one of the last units remaining when city hall was purchased is no longer working, and this unit will replace that one to heat and cool the southeast corner of the building.
• Voted to amend the agenda to add one item, which was the hiring of Trea Herron as the general manager for the water department. The council approved adding the agenda item and the hiring of Herron.
The mayor noted later. “Trea’s a certified operator, and he has had lots of management skills from other industries he’s worked at. We selected him because of his ability to quickly grasp the tasks necessary for the job and his previous management experience.”
See complete story in the Journal Record.
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