{"id":111633,"date":"2015-06-19T18:03:23","date_gmt":"2015-06-20T00:03:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/municipal-lawn-cop-angers-homeowner\/"},"modified":"2015-06-19T18:03:23","modified_gmt":"2015-06-20T00:03:23","slug":"municipal-lawn-cop-angers-homeowner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/municipal-lawn-cop-angers-homeowner\/","title":{"rendered":"Municipal \u2018lawn cop\u2019 angers homeowner"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Joe
Joe James\u2019 ad<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

With more rainfall come more weeds \u2013 and a \u201cfew more\u201d city code violations.<\/p>\n

The number of code enforcement citations issued for overgrown weeds inside city limits wasn\u2019t available, but one official said recent rains have led to additional tickets.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve received a few more complaints than normal for this time of year,\u201d said Municipal Court Clerk Carla Odell.<\/p>\n

Joe James, a 30-year resident of South Madison Street, received a June 10 courtesy notice from the city telling him that tall weeds and rubbish in his yard were a nuisance. The notice instructed him to cut the weeds and clean the yard by July 1.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t mow the yard,\u201d said James. \u201cI guess that\u2019s a federal offense.\u201d<\/p>\n

James immediately cut his frontyard, but it was another June 10 letter from the city that really irked him. The second notice, which included photos of several automobiles in his driveway and his fenced-in backyard, instructed James to remove the vehicles by July 15 or face a $500 fine.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one has ever complained about my backyard,\u201d said James. \u201cAnd no one should be in my driveway looking into my backyard.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an attempt to inspire other residents that have been \u201charassed\u201d and \u201cthreatened\u201d by Cortez code enforcement officials, James purchased a half-page advertisement in The Cortez Journal last week. With the words, \u201cWanted Dead or Alive,\u201d the ad was a satirical attempt to secure additional fencing in order to \u201ckeep the lawn cop from trespassing\u201d onto his property.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a bully,\u201d James said of code enforcement officer Bob Lindvall. \u201cHe intimidates people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Odell, on the other hand, described Lindvall differently.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is really ambitious,\u201d said Odell. \u201cHe wants to get the city cleaned up.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response, James said the city should be more proactive in cutting weeds along public right-of-ways before ticketing private property owners.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey got three guys in every pickup riding around doing nothing,\u201d said James.<\/p>\n

James said his greatest concern was that code enforcement officers are able to go onto private property uninvited. James added that he didn\u2019t file an official complaint with the city, per se, but he did call Lindvall.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t threaten him,\u201d said James. \u201cI promised him that if he ever came onto my property again that I was going to whip his ass.\u201d<\/p>\n

The message was apparently received, because three police officers paid James a visit. They politely warned him that he couldn\u2019t threaten code enforcement officials, and advised him to take his grievance to City Hall. James said he was planning to attend the next city council meeting, which is held Tuesday, June 23.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I saw the pictures of someone tromping around in my backyard, that really pissed me off,\u201d said James. \u201cIt\u2019s aggravating.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the past decade, James said he has spent about $100 every summer buying poison to kill the weeds in his and a neighbor\u2019s lawns, but the weeds got a jump-start this year because of heavy rainfall.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody can see the weeds but me,\u201d said James. \u201cWhen I have some extra time to waste, then I\u2019ll cut them down.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have time for the silliness that matters to no one but me,\u201d he said. \u201cI do my best to keep the yard neat and tidy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI figure what\u2019s in my backyard is my business and no one else\u2019s,\u201d he said concluded. \u201cBut the world don\u2019t act like that today. Nobody minds their own business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most of the city\u2019s weed-related code enforcement tickets result from citizen complaints, said Odell. Those who are ticketed receive ample time to comply and most eventually do, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn every case, the judge will grant more time if it\u2019s needed,\u201d said Odell.<\/p>\n

Once in compliance, residents routinely have fines suspended and tickets dismissed, according to Odell.<\/p>\n

But, she said, There\u2019s a $32 court cost.\u201d<\/p>\n

tbaker@cortezjournal.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ad protesting \u2018bully\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":111634,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[4128,318,13,52],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-111633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-advertising","tag-cortez-municipal-government","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-law-enforcement"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111633"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=111633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}