Actions

UPDATE: City makes progress on overgrown grass

Posted at 7:05 PM, Aug 27, 2013
and last updated 2013-08-27 19:05:07-04

RICHMOND, Va. (WTVR) -- Its been over two months since CBS 6 began airing a series of reports regarding uncut grass in the City of Richmond.

According to city code, any abandoned property is the responsibility of the City to maintain. There was this report on a home off Claibourne Avenue.

Then there was a similar story filed regarding another home on Gordon Avenue filed a few days later.

CBS 6 reporter Joe St. George checked on the properties Tuesday, two months after the stories originally aired.

What we found, is what neighbors had wanted for months - the grass was cut, the trees trimmed. Neighbors say it all occurred within the last few weeks.

Then we went to a home off Edwards Avenue, a property CBS 6 was directed to from a viewer on Monday.

CBS 6 began making phone calls to the city regarding that property Monday and when we arrived Tuesday we saw contracted workers cutting the grass.

The obvious question is why the sudden urgency to cut properties?

"There is always a lot of pressure to get grass cut," Russell Harris, a private grass contractor with F.I.R.S.T. Contracting who was hired by the city to cut grass, said.

Harris said more properties have been cut in the last few weeks because of increased pressure put on contractors by city officials.

But still many properties remain uncut, including another home of Claibourne Avenue.

"I have to sit and look through my window and look at this," Julie Grey, a neighbor said.

Grey's comments have City Council Member Reva Trammell outraged at City Hall - believing its not just the contractors job to get yards cut.

"I think the mayor needs to get off his butt and do his job instead of always being gone," Trammell said.

Richmond Public Works spokesman Sharon North told St. George the city is doing the best it can with the resources given to them.

As for grass cutter Russell Harris, he has a message for residents awaiting their visit.

"Be patient, we are coming," Harris said.