Neglecting Your Lawn Here Can Mean Huge Fines - as part of the news series by GeoBeats.
A village in Long Island is imposing a fine and possible jail time for people who don’t maintain their yards with regular mowing, lawn care, and home maintenance. Its mayor and village council unanimously passed the measure, which would fine homeowners who do not mow their lawn, empty their dumpsters, and fix broken gutters, or if they have shopping carts, litter or broken vehicles in their yard, or if the building has graffiti, unfinished construction or boarded up doors or windows. The first offense carries a 250 to one thousand dollar fine, and a second or third offense can result in ten to fifteen days in jail and 25 hundred to ten thousand dollars in fines.
While neglected properties can be the cause of public health and safety problems and are responsible for driving down the value of other homes in the neighborhood, some local residents think the new laws are not neighborly, and that punishing people is not the solution. “If you have a neighbor that has a lawn or whatever that doesn’t look right, you say, ‘can I help you with it?’” local woman Lauren Della Greca told CBS.
