Like animals stirring
from hibernation, the annual emergence of lawn mowers from their dingy winter
shelters is a reliable indicator that winter is finally gone.
As the weather
warms and the grass grows, giving the lawn a once-over becomes a weekly ritual
for many. Up until 2015, the lawns that escaped that ritual ended up long and
unkempt and eventually were cut by contractors hired by the city, often
resulting in some 3,000 city-funded cuts each year. Since taking over the
business of cutting neglected lawns in 2015, the Youngstown Neighborhood
Development Corp.’s grass-cutting crew has increased the annual number of cuts
across the city to more than 10,000, while cutting the overall cost to the
city. The city formerly paid between $35 and $50 per cut to hire contractors to
mow the lawns. Today, the city pays the YNDC $10 per cut, allowing it to
increase the cuts without growing the price tag for the city. Ian Beniston,
YNDC executive director, said the dramatic increase in cuts largely can be
attributed to a change in the way problem lawns are identified. The city
previously cut neglected lawns only after a complaint was filed. Today,
complaints still play a large role in directing mowing efforts, but the YNDC
also conducts field surveys to locate neglected lawns.
Easy to spot in their neon-yellow shirts, the 11-person YNDC
grass-cutting crew travels the city. It cuts only specific lawns; the lawns
must be located at vacant structures, not abandoned lots and not occupied
structures, and the first time they cut a lawn, the grass height must exceed 8
inches. Occupied structures are handled by city code enforcement, and vacant
lots are cut by the city’s in-house grass-cutting crew. The YNDC cuts aren’t free
– property owners are billed $150 per cut if the grass-cutting team has to pay
a visit. Each morning, the grass-cutting crew is given an efficiency-optimized
route – which is created at YNDC headquarters using an extensive property
database built from citywide survey efforts – before heading out into the city
with zero-turn mowers, weed whackers, leaf blowers and trash bags. They work
10-hour days, six days a week.
Edgardo Velazquez has worked with the grass-cutting team for
four and a half months. He said his experience working for the team has been
positive. “I had been looking for work and saw a posting for the grass-cutting
job at the library,” Velazquez said. “I enjoy the work, I get to be outside,
plus we help people and we can see the physical change in the community.” Between
April and October, the YNDC expects to cut grass at vacant structures
throughout the entire city at least four times over. At the beginning of June,
the team had nearly finished its first full cut of the city. This year, the
team anticipates once again breaking 10,000 cuts, with potentially more if the
conditions allow. “Weather and other factors, such as people maintaining their
lawns or the city demolishing vacant structures, can impact the overall
numbers,” Beniston said. The eventual goal of the YNDC’s mowing efforts is to
lower the number of cuts needed each year as structures are either demolished,
sold to new owners or the current property owners begin to maintain their own
lawns. “We’ve seen that in a lot of instances once property owners see that
we’re actually billing them for the cuts, they start maintaining the lawns
themselves,” Beniston said. Even without lawn mowing, the cutting team has
plenty of work. From October to April, the team guts and prepares structurally
sound abandoned homes for the YNDC to renovate and works to board up condemned
structures. Tom Hetrick, YNDC’s neighborhood planner, said the grass-cutting
team’s work is tough, but added that neighbors often were complimentary after
the team’s efforts. One of those rare, in-person compliments occurred last week
while Velasquez and his team were working on West Dewey Avenue on the city’s
South Side. A neighbor who was watching the group work drove by, slowed down
and thanked them for their “good work.” She then pointed them to another problem
property on the street. One more for the list.
To read the full story from The Vindicator, click here.
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