Letter: City Hall has dropped the ball on unsightly neighborhood nuisance

It is in great frustration with the City of Statesville that I write this letter. I’d like to inform fellow citizens of Statesville about a nuisance yard that has been reported numerous times over the past year with no action by the city.

We moved into our home on North Mulberry near Mac Anderson Park one year ago. When we moved in, we noticed the house next door was in foreclosure, which was evident by the notices posted on the door. The yard was seriously overgrown both in the front, facing the street and in the back, which extends into Mac Anderson Park, which is city property. When the mowers for the city come to mow Mac Anderson, they actually mow a line up to this nuisance yard and turn around. There is no fence so they have created a very obvious boundary between this yard and the park property.

I first notified the code enforcement department last June and was told they would notify the company that owns the house and give them two weeks to mow it, then the city would mow.

That never happened. I followed up about 60 days later and again was told that they would handle the situation. By this time, several of the residents of our neighborhood had also called City Hall and were told it would be taken care of.

That still didn’t happen. When winter came, the nearly 4-foot-tall weeds fell and died and weren’t that visible until spring came again.

I called City Hall again and spoke with the man in charge of neighborhood code and nuisance more than three weeks ago and was told, again, the same thing. They would contact the company and give them two weeks, but they would be out to take care of it.

Now the weeds are nearly 5 feet tall in many places and makes our neighborhood, a major throughway between Race Street and Center Street, a real eyesore.

We often have walkers on our sidewalks, and they have stopped on more than one occasion to ask my husband or me if anything is being done about this eyesore.

We are disappointed the sight of that yard in our neighborhood has greatly brought down the attractiveness of the neighborhood, not to mention the fact that there are several hazards of an overgrown yard, such as fire hazard and a comfortable breeding ground for rodents and snakes.
The address of this home is 518 N. Mulberry St.

I hope the readers of the R&L will drive by to take a look and feel compelled to encourage the xity to take care of this nuisance to our beautiful, historic town.

Erin Moore
Statesville