MULESHOE – The Muleshoe City Council is making changes to clarify allowable limits to the height of weeds and grass.
“This sets the height of grass and weeds that code compliance will be working on with residents in town,” City Manager LeAnn Gallman said at the Feb. 10 Council meeting. “It sets that height of weeds and grass at 12 inches and so anything in excess of 12 inches will be out of compliance and subject to citation.”
The council passed a consideration motion at the Feb. 10 meeting that says weeds and grass cannot exceed 12 inches.
“It alleviates a lot of back and forth in terms of what’s going on and gives us the ability to enforce those violations a lot easier,” Muleshoe Police Chief Gary McHone said during the meeting. “I think that will help us immensely in terms of the high weeds and things like that.”
The previous ordinance, city officials said, did not specify a height, leaving enforcement to interpretation.
“This is the beginning of the seasons.” Gallman said. “We’re early, but as we know, moisture tends to make weeds and grass grow faster so we wanted to try to get a head start on that.”
McHone said that with a height ordinance, a code enforcement officer could use a yard stick to determine compliance.
The Council also is modifying the fee schedule for surrendering animals to the police department. The amendment creates a $45 surrender fee to help reduce costs, including euthanization or future adoption.
“The city has been absorbing those costs,” Gallman said.
“We try to do everything we can to get those animals adopted,” McHone said, such as working with nonprofit organizations that deal with finding animals a home.
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