Ohio city passes jail time for long lawns

CANTON, Ohio, June 3 (UPI) -- City officials in Canton, Ohio, say they're coming after scofflaws who do not cut their lawns with a beefed-up ordinance and possible jail time.

Canton's city council voted 12-0 Monday to approve a new law including possible jail time for repeat offenders who let their yards become overgrown and weed-infested, the Canton (Ohio) Repository reported. The new law, it said, ups a second high-grass citation to a fourth-degree misdemeanor, which could result in a fine and up to 30 days in jail.

The city fathers are instituting a clampdown on some of the biggest problem yards where grass and weeds measure at a foot or more and which the city is forced to mow at taxpayer expense. The tall grass can also become a health hazard because they attract rodents.

City officials received a blizzard of e-mails opposed to the jail time element of the proposed law when it was highlighted on a popular conservative Web site, the Repository reported. But that didn't stop Mayor William Healy from supporting it, saying it is more about saving the city the $250,000 per year it spends mowing private lots than on punishing people with jail time.