Marshfield committee halves weed-control fine for 1214 East 20 Fifth Street after resident appeal

The Marshfield Judiciary and License Committee voted to reduce a weed-control fine by 50% for the property at 1214 East 20 Fifth Street following an appeal from a family representative and testimony from Streets Department staff.

The committee’s action came after a property representative explained the household’s recent hardships: “it it's my grandmother's property, and, she's actually not there. She's in rehab right now,” and that the family had missed mail and had medical issues and travel that impeded lawn maintenance. The representative said the yard had since been mowed and that neighbors in the wooded section of the street had similar grass conditions.

The Streets Department said it received an initial complaint on June 18 from a neighboring resident, inspected the property on June 19 and again on June 30, and then arranged for city staff to mow the lawn because the issue had not been corrected. “Our staff did the mowing and got the lawn back in within the ordinance and sent out the final billing,” Tim, Streets Department staff, said, and he reported the billing included the administration fee for a first offense plus the department’s hourly rate for two hours of mowing.

Committee member Rebecca moved to reduce the fine by 50%, citing the household’s documented hardships and the time staff invested; the motion was seconded and approved by the committee.

The property representative had difficulty recalling the exact amount of the charge during testimony, saying it was “285, I think,” and later saying she could not remember the exact figure. The Streets Department confirmed the final billing reflected the administrative fee and two hours of mowing; the committee’s action reduced the assessed fine by half.

Because the committee reduced the assessed fine, no further formal enforcement action on this agenda item was recorded at the meeting.