Hello Friends,
Thursday of last week there was a knock at the front door. It was our local police. Hmmm, I wondered what was going on. I opened the door and he asked if I called in a complaint about our backyard neighbor.
No, I did not.
He went on to share that someone called in a complaint about all the garbage, vehicles and stuff that is piled everywhere, but did not leave their name.
Hmmm, I shared with him, our backyard is fenced in, but I can see through the fence and yes I do see the "collection of items". But we did not call.
He shared that they were asked to clean up the yard last summer by the leadership of the village.
Hmmm, the memo must of gotten lost in the mail, because instead of cleaning up they added to the collection.
He asked me who might have called in?
I said most of us have put fence up so we do not need to see the disaster that has taken several years to make. And that most of our neighbors that do have a relationship with each other have decided it no longer pays to call to complain because nothing gets done about it anyway. And we do not want to get on the bad side of this neighbor, because he already had some words with a different neighbor across the street.
I think this surprised him, because he said, we are here to help.
I know you are I said.
He was a young police officer, reminded me of our military son, eager to help.
He told me he hopes the village will enforce the ordinance.
And he left.
Hmmm, I closed the door. Will the village enforce the ordinance?
To Be Continued...
Note: I usually do not share the ugly stuff around my neck of the woods. Our neighborhood is fairly nice, we do have neighbors who help us without even asking.
I usually am an optimistic person, but with this matter I am rather discouraged. How do you get someone to move piles of trash? Two campers, six cars, washing machines, freezers and refrigerators. This collection has been on going for several years. And earlier complaints go on deaf ears.
Does your community have a way to deal with such things, or do they pretend not to see and hear?
I'm sorry to hear you're dealing with this. UGH! At least you don't have to see all of the junk due to your fence. We have had some inconsiderate neighbors on our street but nothing too bad and nothing regarding "things" left in piles or an accumulation of things. I am curious why the police cared about who called it in. I mean, why does it matter? It sounds like anyone with eyesight can see the mess of the yard. It seems like instead of knocking on doors in the neighborhood asking who called the police, the police needs to be knocking on ONE particular door and asking why there is so much stuff and explaining violations to the people living there.
ReplyDeleteThese sorts of neighborhood issues are so maddening. Maybe one of your neighbors thought they'd try going through channels once more. I hope the officer follows through. Maybe youth and optimism are on his side.
ReplyDeleteoh goodness! I'm so glad you have a fence so you aren't staring at all of that junk. I hope they make them clean it out. I always worry about critters living in all of that junk. We are in a neighborhood with covenants and so most things get handled BUT we did have a former neighbor on our street who let his yard grow wild (ridiculously so). Also, his front porch steps rotted. The HOA kept sending notices to him to repair and clean and it didn't happen. At that point, the HOA is supposed to pay to have the work done and then bill the homeowner, but for whatever reason, that didn't happen. Finally, the home owner decided to move. The house was sold to a young couple. Before it went on the market, the original home owner had to pay to have all of that work done - supposedly the inside was in worse shape than the outside! If the original home owner had done a little work along things could have been different.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first moved to my house, when I got close to my driveway there was my future neighbor changing his boat oil in my driveway. I had to wait for him to finish and move his boat. Then later after moving in he would go on my property and put that same boat in the back and even a camper. He even trained his dog to do its business in other neighbors yards. I finally had enough and told him this was my property now...and not his. His response was that the elderly lady who lived here before me did not care. Well I cared and wanted to use my property the way I wanted, the want he wanted. He ended up moving and renting the house out...but then went bankrupt I was told...because he kept buying toys and
ReplyDeletestoring them at his new house and lost it all. Karma I say. Good luck with your situation. It is always hard when you have a neighbor like that. Janice