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Police and city officials conducting “city-wide cleanup” and serving notices to offenders

Trash and debris in yards could be a target of a city-wide effort to clean up

MASON CITY – Police and city officials in Mason City are teaming up at this time on a “city-wide cleanup” with dozens of notices being served about town to alleged lawbreakers.

Starting with the observations of patrol officers and other city employees, the city is acting to bring code violations under control.

According to Pat Otto of the Neighborhood Services department, city employees “have been doing a drive through with police officers this week addressing concerns that patrol officers have seen over the past several months.”

NIT was notified by citizens in Central Heights that there were a number of notices served there Wednesday. Pat Otto confirmed this, telling NIT that “they were in Central Heights late Wednesday afternoon and part of the day on Thursday… several Notices to Abate Nuisance were issued.” She says, more specifically, 15 notices were served out there.

Mason City police also confirm they are involved in this effort.

“Yes this is underway,” a Mason City police spokesman told NIT Friday morning. “We have done this periodically over the last few years. It partners the beat driver (police) with a city code enforcement officer to address (civil) property code violations. Some violations may overlap with our duties or there may be criminal violations as well. We started doing this around 2010 to increase communication and effectiveness while reducing redundancy between city departments.”

NIT is told common violations include: junk, junk vehicles, brush piles, parking, zoning violations, unregistered rentals, rental code violations.

Bookmeyer “not in a position to understand”

One Mason City citizen who was served a notice reached out to Mayor Eric Bookmeyer early Friday morning, asking him why he was given notice to clean up his yard “in two weeks … right before a huge snowstorm and bitter cold weather moves in? How come nobody first talked to me before putting a yellow paper on my door? How come several other junky yards near me were passed by when they came straight to my place?”

Bookmeyer responded to the citizen, saying “I am not in position to understand the background here.”

“We don’t issue citations until all avenues towards compliance have been exhausted,” Mrs. Otto explained. “Two weeks is the normal time allowed for cleanup before the second inspection. At that point whether a citation or time extension is issued depends on the amount of effort expended towards the clean-up.”

NIT is told this is a city-wide cleanup effort and will probably go on for several weeks.

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