Making Mountains out of Molehills

Not too too long ago, I attended a City meeting intended to discuss the replacement of trees at Festival Park. During that meeting we were talking about cost and found out they were going to haul 40+ trees to White St. I thought - hey, why not save money by mulching the trees on site. They seemed to like that idea. A few days later, I thought, hey, wait, some of that would could be used to create something. (See this.) So, I made a deal with the City...if they would give me some notice, I would be glad to take the trees off their hands and try to reuse them.



So, of course I get a call at 7:30 in the a.m. saying - hey, if I want the trees, they are already cutting them and can I come get them. Um, I don't have a big truck and I don't know where I'm going to put them which is why I asked for a little notice. Nonetheless I go out there and look at the trees and they are huge! There was no way I was going to be able to get them to my house or anywhere else and with short notice I had not found a place to store them. But, when the City Field Operations staff asked where I lived and I said Glenwood...they offered to deliver them to my house. Wow, that is pretty nice. Apparently, they really shouldn't do this, but the guy driving the truck lived in Glenwood too so it would be on his way home.



So, the city truck dumps the logs in my driveway and in the process launches several logs into my neighbor's fence. The neighbor isn't happy about this, sees the logs in the driveway and calls the City's Local Ordinance Enforcement people. Soon, thereafter I get a yellow 8.5x11 letter stuck to my front door ordering me to clean up the logs (and, in addition, clean up some "brush") in the yard. I called them to get clarification of exactly which logs they were talking about and wht they meant by brush as my wife had only lived in the house since September and had done a significant amount of cleaning overgrowth from the property, some of which was currently sitting in the street next to the curb. We also had a stack of limbs that we had broken up and have the intention of adding to our compost bins once we get those erected. (This house had been a foreclosure and the yard severely neglected.)


One of the things the previous owner left (did I mention that the previous owner is the same one who called the City on the logs?) was a bunch of cut logs (probably 1-2' sections) stacked in the back corner of the property. Knowing this would only invite critters, looked unsightly I tried to think of some other way to use the wood. Seeing as how we had no fence bordering our property, I thought taking the logs and placing them end to end like a garden border would be a great resue of these logs, so I spent a day moving these pieces (pic to left) to create an edge to the yard. Back to this in a second.

So, when I called the number on the yellow sheet of paper and asked what she meant by logs and brush, she wasn't sure and said she would have to go back out and look. I told her we planned to move the logs from the driveway anyway and stack them in the back yard. We eventually did this (see pic below). In the meantime, the brush I had piled in the street and a bunch of the cut logs I didn't have a use for made their way to White St. Landfill. I still have the brush pile in the back yard because I haven't quite got around to building the compost enclosures yet - but I did recently get some wood pallets to do this.

Long story longer is that the inspector came by today (our compliance due date was May 22) and informed me that while she was unsure whether the stacked logs were okay, the logs that I placed to make a border definitely had to go because they could harbor rats, snakes or yellowjackets. I know, gasp. I'm not quite sure how she arrives at this conclusion...I mean yellow jackets and snakes can also hang out underneath our deck...does that mean we have to remove that too? I try to explain to her that I understand the need for these ordinances but that I think that it wasn't intended in the case of someone who has orderly stacked wood or placed them end to end to create a border, but rather someone who is keeping these materials in a haphazard manner. I don't see how these logs constitute a public safety hazard.

Either way, she said she needed to confer with her Supervisor about the stacked trees but that the logs will definitely have to go. I asked her if there is an appeals process and she said no, but I could talk to her supervisor. (Note: a look at the City's Code of Ordinances reveals that section 17-6 does outline an appeals process, albeit a vague one. She said she had worked in this department for 4 years so I'm not sure how she didn't know there was an appeals process.) So, for now I will wait, but am told that if I don't do something with the brush and logs placed end to end on the border she'll be forced to have a City contractor come and do the work which could cost me in the neighborhood of $500.

I hate to say it, but I think the City is overreaching in this particular situation and I hope a reasonable conclusion is in the future.