Her home of 12 years is gone, flattened six months ago by a tornado and then bulldozed away, but Kristen Otto learned recently that fines might start accruing if she didn’t cut back the grass on the empty lot in her devastated neighborhood off Shallowford Road.
By the time the letter from the city reached Otto at the apartment in Ooltewah where she and her husband are living temporarily, she had one day to comply before fines of $50 a day might begin, according to the notice. She posted to a neighborhood message board asking for help, and a stranger rode his mower to her lot in Drake Forest and cut the grass.
“I could not find a way to get that done in time,” she said.
Donna Williams, director of Economic and Community Development for the city, said Otto could have called the number on the notice and talked with the city about her circumstances.
“What typically happens is the property owner will reach out to who is listed on the letter and we accommodate that situation,” Williams said. “If she called and talked to him he would have done what we often do and worked it out.”