The City of North Battleford is starting to had out property orders for unsightly and junk filled yards as the snow melts (ID 15048287 © Empehun | Dreamstime.com).

By Austin Mattes

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With the weather getting warmer and the snow melting, the City of North Battleford reminded residents on social media that Community Safety Officers can issue property orders for unsightly, or junk filled yards in accordance with the city’s property maintenance and nuisance abatement bylaw.

This sparked a positive and negative reaction from community members on social media with some giving the boot to the city calling it ‘money hungry.’

One person wrote, “I do not start my yard work until all the snow is gone and dried up front and back!! If they start giving me an order this month there will be a very angry phone call to the city!”

Others, however, sided with the city, and wrote, “Just be a normal person and clean your yard, not that hard to do” and “There are some properties in this community that need to be cleaned up or FINED!”

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North Battleford Public and Intergovernmental Relations Coordinator, Candace Toma clarified the matter and said there is a grace period for any issues to be resolved.

“When a property maintenance order is issued by CSOs, it’s an order to remedy within a certain amount of time. Generally, it’s a two-week time period, so you have a couple of weeks to get whatever issue is under control,” she said.

Toma added this process isn’t new and if the issue isn’t resolved in the time period, that’s when a fine will occur.

“If the order is not completed then the city will actually clean or remedy that issue and then whatever the cost is will be billed back onto the property owners tax bill. And then there’s a fine that’s issued as well for being in contravention of that bylaw,” Toma said.

The cleaning or remedy fee from the city is based upon how much work is needed to be done on the property while the fines start at $100 and can be upwards depending on the severity of the bylaw violation.

Despite the negative responses from some residents, Toma said the bylaw is intended to help the community and orders even get issued to properties owned by the city.

“If we have unsightly properties, it plays a little bit of a factor in terms of lowering property values and sometimes affects safety. So, we do our best to uphold the standards set forth in the bylaw and if the city has a property where it’s observed that something is out of line, CSO’s will write those property orders as well,” she said.

The full outline of the bylaw can be found on the City of North Battleford website or residents can call 306-445-1700 for more information.

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Austin.mattes@pattisonmedia.com

On X: @AustinMattes