Truesdale may soon step up enforcement efforts after recent discussions of overgrown grass.

“We have had discussions about doing some cleanup around the city, especially weeds,” Mayor Jerry Cannon said at the Aug. 12 Board of Aldermen meeting, adding that city workers had been clearing weeds along Highway M earlier in the day.

Cannon wanted to “kind of emphasize the fact that our city needs to look nice,” he said. Alderman Mike Thomas said he agreed, adding that he has recently been in touch with Missouri Department of Transportation officials.

“I called MoDOT, I talked to them today, and told them that they need to start weed-eating along those temporary barriers along the service road,” Thomas said, adding, however, that he “wasn’t met with a great response” to his concern.

“But it’s just ridiculous, it’s like they’ve completely stopped mowing since the I-70 project, you know, it’s not just there. If you look at I-70 all the way along, I mean it’s embarrassing if you’re driving along there, it looks like you’re driving through a jungle,” he said.

“But ultimately it’ll go up to the right category, if not I’ll talk to some others at the state level and see what can happen,” he added.

Local resident Kevin McCurdy said that besides unmowed grass that is MoDOT’s responsibility, there are also problem residential properties in town.

“As long as we’re on the subject of mowing, there’s three or four homes in Heritage Hills that the grass is like a foot and a half tall, especially the one that you come to as you first drive into the subdivision, first place you set your eyes on,” he said.

“Something’s got to be done. It’s not right. I mean the man, once a month he has a private detailing company come out to detail his car. If he can afford that, he can afford a gardener,” McCurdy added.

Alderwoman Ellen Wortham said besides issues with some residential yards, Truesdale has commercial properties whose owners are not fully mowing the grass they’re responsible for.

“And part of those are the building owners that lease out to businesses, and so I’m sure it’s not really clear whether it’s the lessor or the lessee, but someone needs to take care of that,” she said.

Police Chief Casey Doyle said the city’s current process for dealing with overgrown grass is to give property owners a 10-day notice. “It can’t be any taller than 12 inches, or we issue that 10-day notice. If it’s not cut within 10 days you get a citation,” he said.

Asked whether fines increase if someone is cited repeatedly, City Attorney Amber Bargen said this is not necessarily the case.

“If somebody comes in to a judge with 10 tickets of the same thing issued 10 days in a row, I mean, that would just be something I would have to address with the judge,” she said. “But no, there’s not an automatic rule on that.”

Wortham said some cities deal with grass-cutting issues by doing the mowing themselves and then billing residents.

“There’s municipalities that say ‘OK, you’ve been given a citation or a warning, you have until this date to cut your grass. If you don’t cut it by this date then the city will cut it and send you a bill,’” she said. “So that seems a little bit more user-friendly than just constantly like ticket, ticket, ticket.”

Bargen said the same city ordinance that limits grass height to one foot also allows it to levy a special tax for mowing costs on a property, but if the city is going to start enforcing that more than it has been, it needs to look more into specifics of how that would work.

Wortham said city employees should not start going on people’s properties to mow unless the city has clear language in its ordinances and property owners are given written notice beforehand of what they’ll be charged. Bargen said much of this is already in place in the city ordinance.

As for the residential property owner causing problems for the city, McCurdy noted that there’s probably “some kids that would do it for, you know, 20 bucks or whatever,” but Riehl said the property owner in question simply doesn’t want to pay to mow his grass.

“He’s gone through four grass cutters from what I understand,” she said, adding that she understands if the mowers quit if they’re not paid.

“I mean, that’s gas and string and their time, and they should be paid. You know, it’s not charity,” she said.

Cannon said the city needs to do something to address the problem. Truesdale gets compliments for putting up flags and similar decorations at holidays, but the city’s efforts are wasted if it can’t enforce basic rules to keep the city looking good like its mowing ordinance, he said.