Rocks in the Road Right of Way Ruckus for City Commission Meeting of 9/10/13

May 15th 2012.  Agenda Item 8. The commission will consider the request of the property owner  for permission to install landscaping in the city road right of way.

Leningraders on Nevsky Prospekt during the siege, 1942

Simple enough. Nothing to get biblical over or to wax poetic. More than a year however has gone by. 482 days be exact. More than half as long as the siege of Leningrad during the  Second World War which lasted 872 days and has inspired books and movies.

So  perhaps 482 days of drama is worth more than a passing glance. Robert Frost, once poet laureate of the United States. concluded his famous poem Mending Walls with, "Good fences make good  neighbors."
The Good Book tells us we should love our neighbor. The Good Lord in a rather dramatic incident from New Testament,  full of finger pointing, and accusations says "he who is without sin many cast the first stone."

  Tonight's City commission meeting offers  Agenda Item 4:  The Commission will consider the request of the property owner for approval of construction in the road right-of-way will be discussed.  Yes it is the same property owner and the same property as the one discussed 482 days previous. Last year the subject was "landscape". This time it is "construction." If that sounds vague it is intentional. At the last commission meeting neighbors, (a husband and wife) were quite 

Rock of Gibraltar

 concerned large rocks (or boulders)  placed in the road right of way. That is something  which seems to be happening all over town these days. The idea being to keep those pesky home improvement/ landscape  trucks from trashing the edge of one's lawn. The problem arises however when the mini rocks of Gibraltar  make a narrow street narrower  or by encroaching on the roadway become safety hazard for motorists or worse City vehicles doing their job like plowing  snow.

Of course the City has a specific ordinance concerning the matter but has not been specific about enforcing it perhaps because some residents answer only to the Almighty.

The property owner as per the agenda item is expected to attend the meeting  and state his point of view. 

The commissioners have in their agenda packet a fifty page document  on the matter which reads like the Book of Job with the  City being the injured party. It is available on the City's web site and since the problem seems city wide it might be of interest to home owners or homeowner associations. The document written by the City Manger concludes by strongly suggesting that the City seek an indemnification clause for itself.