Continued: Richfield urges neighbors to 'adopt' vacant homes

Determined to kick-start a city program to get neighbors to "adopt" vacant homes in Richfield, City Council Member Fred Wroge put his lawnmower in his car trunk a few weeks ago and drove to a home that had been empty for 18 months.

The grass was 20 inches high. Wroge started mowing -- and discovered that he had to stop and empty the mower's bag after a single pass across the yard.

It was a daunting task.

But soon a woman emerged from a home across the street with a little saw, offering to cut up some of the tree limbs that had fallen in the yard. Then a man in another house emerged with a chainsaw, saying the branches were too big for a handsaw. Someone else brought out trash bags and said he'd put the yard waste in with his garbage. And yet another homeowner came out with a bottle of water for Wroge.

"That just happened," Wroge said. "It was great for me to see."

Too much work for city to do alone

With 300 foreclosed homes and a city budget stretched to the limit, Richfield is urging residents who want to preserve the appearance of their neighborhoods to mow lawns and pick up handbills and other trash that identifies vacant homes.

The adopt-a-house program was suggested by Mayor Debbie Goettel after she heard what other cities were doing at a national conference, said Police Chief Barry Fritz.

"We probably got 40, 50 or 60 calls about houses with weeds or unkempt yards," Fritz said. "One [unkempt] house in the middle of a neighborhood can really ruin a neighborhood. We have people here who are very conscientious about their lawns, retired people who are picking out every weed, and then there's a yard with the dandelion seeds flying."

The usual city procedure for overgrown yards is to send a community service officer out to the property to document the situation, send a letter to the owner and wait to see if it's taken care of. If it's not, Richfield sends out two employees who would normally be working in parks or on other public land to cut the grass. Then the property's owner is billed for the service through property taxes.

"It's a slow process and it taxes city staff," Fritz said. "We thought, geez, these Richfield lots really aren't that big. And who does it really affect? The people who live around them."

Tall, weedy yards, yellowed flyers hanging from doorknobs, and branches scattered across sidewalks can scream "unoccupied" to anyone who's looking for a home to squat in, break into or steal fixtures from, Fritz said. "We don't want neighbors to confront anyone, but anything will help because this is becoming an issue," he said.

The city is sending a brochure to residents encouraging them to adopt a vacant house. Residents don't need to worry about trespassing unless the home is occupied or the property is posted, Fritz said. City officials would like people who want to adopt a house to let the city know so it can track interest in the program, Fritz said. Many lawns in Richfield can be mowed in less than a half hour, and it isn't much of a burden if neighbors share the duty, he said. And lawns will need less mowing when it gets hotter at midsummer.

"We just want people to know they can do this at no cost to the city and do it faster and more efficiently than we can," Fritz said. "We need to pull together to keep the city nice and neat and clean-looking."

'We've grown away from this'

In Brooklyn Park, another suburb with significant numbers of foreclosures, director of community development Bob Schreier said he was intrigued by Richfield's program. A strong community outreach program means that Brooklyn Park residents usually call the city if there's a problem with a foreclosed property. But, Schreier said, "I like this idea. ... I think we'll talk about this."

Wroge, who originally ran for City Council on quality-of-life issues that include property maintenance, views the program as a throwback to his youth, when his dad told him to mow the yard of the elderly woman down the street. Neighbors were never asked to do the lady's lawn, he said, but each week they traded off the duty and just got it done.

"I think sometimes we expect the government to solve all our problems," Wroge said. "We've grown away from this, with two wage earners in homes and people so busy. This is a great way to meet the neighbors and help."

Wroge said he already has heard from one resident who has said he'll mow yards if the city gives him some addresses. That's great, Wroge said. But neighbors know best what is happening on their street and whether a house is vacant.

At the house where he and the neighbors banded together to clean up the yard, Wroge discovered that the property was for sale. He called the real estate agent who had listed the property, and she sent someone out to finish the work that he and the neighbors had started.

"But we're going to look for another house," Wroge said. "I hope this spreads."

Mary Jane Smetanka • 612-673-7380