Tis the season to mow your lawn, and State College Borough is making sure you don’t forget. Borough officials say the Grass and Weed Ordinance will be in effect until October 31.
What does that mean? Basically, grass and weeds may not exceed 6 inches in height, or the Borough will have your lawn mowed at your own expense.
“This is nothing new. It’s been in effect for at least 25 years with a few amendments,” explained Kevin Kassab, the borough’s inspections supervisor.
The ordinance is designed to prevent health risks. Tall grass can become a refuge for snakes and other unwanted wildlife.
Excessive vegetation promote wet spots where mosquitoes breed. And let’s not forget, all that green can lead to an increase in pollen levels.
Plus, the Borough doesn’t want the negative appearance that is generated by unkempt lawns.
Gary Brierton was mowing his lawn this morning and didn’t even know about the ordinance, “I didn’t realize that they enforced grass heights. It just seems like a common sense type of thing to me. If they aren’t doing it, fine them! Sounds good to me.”
The Borough will fine residents who don’t keep their lawns tidy.
“It’s pretty common. We have a staff here and they go out on a regular basis and monitor the borough in its entirety. If we see a problem we make a note of the height and a warning is issued. We give them a time period to correct the problem,” said Kassab.
If residents don’t correct the problem, the issue leads to fines and eventually the Borough hires a contractor to mow the lawn.
“We check 72 hours after the warning is issued. If it’s not correct we issue a field violation and 24 hours after that we issue another violation and send out a certified letter stating that they must cut the grass. When we receive the green card that the letter was received or went unclaimed, we start the contracting process,” said Kassab.
Don’t let the process get that far — it can get expensive for the property owner. “We bill the contractor and then an additional %10 of whatever the cost is. That 10% goes to the Borough,” explained Kassab.
Save yourself some money. Mow your lawn and keep State College looking nice.
