Residents fault city for delayed neighborhood cleanup

ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. – Residents of a north county community are blaming their city hall for being too slow in cleaning up a mess.

Joy Johnson is one resident who says officials are not enforcing city ordinances, which has led to her concerns about grass growing too high and a tree that fell on a house three months ago still sitting in the same spot.

“The grass is hip high; the grass is so high you cannot see the front door… I don’t know what’s going on, but it shouldn’t be like that,” she said.

Besides the grass, there are at least two cases of city trees that have fallen on houses and have sat in the same spot for three months.

“The houses are becoming deplorable. There are vagrants and squatters in some of these homes. They’re not taken care of…nobody is cleaning up the yards or anything,” resident Jamie Papenber said. “The City of Bellefontaine Neighbors is basically throwing it to the wayside. They don’t have enough employees, they don’t have enough of this, they don’t have enough of that.”

Papenber says they just can’t get city hall to act despite attending meetings, calling officials, and making their concerns public.

“It falls on a deaf ear. We just don’t know what to do next,” she said.

FOX 2 visited city hall and was told the mayor wasn’t in, but it appears they got the message as the grass was soon cut and the trees were removed from the houses.

Mayor Dinah Tatman soon got in contact with FOX 2, stating that three lawnmowers were in the shop and approval was needed by the board to have contractors assist the neighborhood.

“We understand the citizens, even me. I don’t like my city to look like a jungle, but when you don’t have a thing you can do, you have to wait until you can get the equipment, the people, and the money,” she said.

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