City struggles to keep up with weeds in the flood zone

The weeds have grown a lot taller this summer in some flood-damaged parts of Cedar Rapids.  And that's in spite of the city adding both manpower and equipment to take over the mowing chores from former owners.

In the two summers immediately after the flood of June 2008, groups of volunteers helped mow lawns for owners in the flood zone.  But that ended this summer and the city had to take over cutting weeds and grass at both buyout properties now owned by the city  and abandoned flood-damaged properties.  But crews couldn't promise the same kind of yard maintenance you'd expect from a neighbor cutting his lawn.

Instead, the standard now is what you'd expect to see in a roadside ditch with mowing taking place about every four to six weeks.  Craig Hanson, Cedar Rapids Public Works Maintenance Manager, said complaints about a “shaggier” look were more common earlier in the year.  Now residents have largely adjusted to the “new normal.”

“That area can't be maintained as a park-nor will it ever be.  Could you go to a maintenance level like Noelridge Park for quality of mowing? Yes. But that comes with a budget requirement and level of service that can we can't provide,” Hanson said.

Hanson said the city has acquired some more equipment to cut grass and he was able to add some manpower to tackle the weeds after a new budget year began July 1

^st

.  But instead of gaining on the weeds, he's barely keeping up because all the rain this summer has made everything grow faster.

“The additional staffing has picked up the (mowing) pace to twice what it was in early May.  But because of the rain the overall net effect is we're still in that 18-24 inch range,” Hanson said.

Hanson said the city wanted to keep grass in the flood zone lots below 18 inches before the next mowing.  But it's difficult because of how fast things are growing.  And some areas do have yards with taller weeds before the city crews return.  Crews also can't move fences or other barriers to trim tall weeds.  But as more homes come down with the demolition process, maintenance of the former yards will get easier.

Russ Glackin works in the flood zone and said he's noticed the difference this summer. Glackin said “the city doesn't get down here as much.  Back then, (pre-flood) there weren't the gnats or mosquitoes-stuff like that.  I think they need to put more effort into taking care of what they got.”

But Dave Swanson, who lives near Ellis Blvd. N.W., hasn't seen any particular problems with the levels of maintenance.  “The people who are here are taking care of their property.  They've been doing a good job staying on top of it,” Swanson said.  And he added he didn't have any complaints about what the city was doing either.

Hanson said city officials are talking about seeding the  buyout areas with a type of prairie grass that would not need constant mowing.  But no decisions have been made about that kind of change.