If you don’t like cutting grass, its in your financial best interest to get someone other than the City of Stanley or its employees to do it for you. While the City currently contracts out lawnmowing services to a third party and bills the landowner $50, that fee is set to increase shortly to $75, not including a $25 administration fee to bring the total to $100. Taking city employee time costs money, and potentially detracts from their other duties—or in other words, the cost of not mowing lawn has to hurt one’s pocketbook enough that people do it themselves, as one council member effectively expressed Monday March 1.

“If the city has to come out and do anything for you, it’s $100,” alderman Jacob Huff said of consequences for city residents who didn’t feel inclined to do or else pay for someone other than the City to mow their lawn and other basic duties. Such unkept properties left to go to seed take up police and other city worker’s time, along with having a greater impact on the city’s image as a whole. The notice would be sent to the landowner, and not the tenant. Alderman Mark Fitzsimmons agreed that the city had to be consistent in applying the fees.

“$75 for the job, and $25 for administration,” he said of lawnmowing along with snow removal. Snow removal was previously approved for $75 while the City had been billing $50, without an administration fee. Not anymore.

“We’ll have to change our ordinance,” Mayor Al Haas said of adopting consequences to impel citizens to . Chief Lance Weiland noted the multiple places that notice was posted, from the city website to Facebook and even in the water bills—seven in total. Not knowing wasn’t a cause to avoid charges. Meanwhile, consistency across the board was important.

“We’re not discriminating among fees,” Huff said of charging a universal $25 administration fee for wasting city employee time to deal with un-mowed lawns. Alderwoman Laurie Foster brought up the additional need to keep fire hydrants open and accessible during winter weather.

“Just on snow removal, if you have a fire hydrant on your street, you should clean that too,” she said. Mayor Haas had his own input “It’s going to be hard if you’re 92 years old—” he said of city residents who may be unable to do the yearly work for reasons other than laziness, while Foster didn’t see age as an absolute reason to give a pass on snow shoveling.

“Well you just get someone else to do it,” she said of wintertime reality. With the Common Council later voting to pursue an ordinance fine of $100 for non-compliance with lawnmowing fees, it might be good to seek a more economical lawnmowing agency, if time or other concerns make it difficult for one to trim the grass.