CITY OF LOCKPORT
Job filled to deal with unmown lots
LOCKPORT— Mayor Michael W. Tucker acknowledged last week that the city has a rash of unmown lots this summer but said a vacant job being filled this week should help set things right.
Tucker said he has appointed Robert Turner to the community services aide post that had been vacant since the unexpected death of Steven Niziol this spring.
The job involves issuing citations to property owners who don’t cut their grass, who put out garbage too soon or, in winter, don’t shovel the sidewalks in front of their property.
Turner, an elder of Friendship Missionary Baptist Church, had sought the job before.
“Robert came in the day after I hired Steve,” Tucker said.
Niziol made an impact in the city with his dedication to the position, but after his death in May, his absence was felt.
At last week’s Common Council work session, aldermen griped about an epidemic of lots with grass far higher than the city’s 6-inch limit.
Highways and Parks Superintendent Michael E. Hoffman said the city has more than 100 parcels that need to be mowed. He said he could use two men full time just to do that, but his forces are deployed elsewhere, including street repaving.
“We need to do something about this, so people aren’t constantly violating this,” said Alderwoman Amanda L. Alexander, R-2nd Ward.
Hoffman said that for property owners, “It’s cheaper to pay someone to do it than to pay $250 [city fines] plus costs.”
But he said the city grass ordinance really ought to be changed, because a property owner can evade the fine simply by waiting until the last minute to hire someone to cut the grass.
“The way the ordinance is written is, ‘If I break this rule once a year and then wait until the eleventh hour, I don’t pay anything [to the city]. Then the next year, I do it again,’ ” Hoffman said.
Meanwhile, Alderman Patrick W. Schrader, D-4th Ward, fumed about piles of garbage, showing photos of a mountainous mess in front of a Wash-burn Street apartment house and another behind a vacant store on South Transit Street.
“Residents pay $200 a year for garbage [service], and they put out two cans. These clowns that own these slum houses, they put out a garbage truck,” Schrader stormed.
Tucker said, “Steve [Niziol] used to pull people into court.” The city has a law that trash can’t be placed at the curb sooner than 24 hours before pickup. The penalty is a $100 fine for a first offense, $200 for a second offense and $250, 15 days in jail, or both, for a third violation.
