Morning of May 28th, 2019, update:

I do recall this property from your prior Hammond 311 issue regarding this home -- Issue # 5898240 made on May 22nd.

If 6811 Madison Ave. is still tall as of today, I will issue a citation in City Court & attempt to track down the owners. If we must hire landscapers to mow the property, it may be 10 days before we can get to it. I'll see what we can do & whether the owners will cooperate prior to going that route.

The owner past away not to long ago! Family members have been trying their best to come by help and keep up with the house as best as they can...

To user "Tori Rodgers" -- Thank-you for the update. I will leave a warning on the front of the home & hopefully, the family reaches out to me so we can avoid complicating what is certainly a tough time for them.

If you speak with them, please, let them know they can reach the City at 1-219-853-6447 & to not hesitate to call because we do not wish to punish or fine them.

The grass would’ve been cut yesterday but you know there were these called tornadoes touching down. As for this this user I’m reporting her to the police she has reported my families house to like 5 times now for different things that had nothing to do with the house. And I’m getting tired of it. And for tori Rogers thank you for announcing that the owner died so it could be broken into.

I’m so sorry people work and it’s rained non stop for over a month. And as for citing it if the city can use the excuse for the rain ruining their mowers you can’t cite homeowners for the same issue.

Funny how it’s ok for the city to use the excuse of the rain ruining the mowers but it isn’t ok for the residents to. Sorry people have jobs and that’s it’s rained over a month.

Really

It's amazing that people who don't have jobs have nothing better to do than complain about houses being taken care of by people who work. And surprise, it's been raining quite a bit. Grass is going to grow.

Instead of being a good neighbor and try to help one another they decide to complain and pretend to care about their community, If they cared so much they will give a helping hand whenever it’s possible instead of trying & getting them fined and all after all aren’t we as people are what supposed to make our community better By lending a hand and being a good neighbor to one another?? I don’t understand those who constantly make reports and harass unlike them people have jobs and children and reasons why things can’t get things done regardless of how many years!! Just because they have all the time in the world to drive by and take pictures to make reports on people don’t mean we have the same time and some neighbors are handicapped and dependent on family to help them out with their lawn.. There is no consideration nor minding their business. As of the house getting broken into neighbors are making sure that don’t happened.

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I called the owner, and told them that they're lawn and bushes were getting out of hand.

Tori Rodgers -- Thank you VERY much for reaching out to the family. This helps everyone out a lot. Time will be given to come into compliance. I left the WARNING on their mailbox as a courtesy, so the family knows who to contact in the City if they need to & so neighbors know the City is aware of the situation at 6811 Madison Ave.
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I understand everyone's frustrations. Do know that the letters & the green stickers we've sent out & posted are WARNINGS. I repeat -- WARNINGS. Those warnings include a 10-day period to address the issues or to at least contact us and explain why they need more time. We give more time to residents who need it! (Do note we have given almost everyone longer than that standard 10-day period, because we do try to work with homeowners & sympathize with the rain.) --- These warnings are NOT citations or fines. We do NOT "fine" people for tall grass unless they abandon the property and/or ignore the issue for months, and the City must then spend your taxpayer money to hire landscapers. At that point, we expect owners to pay us back for the landscapers we hired, which I believe is fair to the taxpayers. (In the vast majority of cases, the City does not re-coup its money & must chalk it up as losses spent helping improve our neighborhoods.)

I have been avoiding issuing citations as much as I can so far this Spring for tall grass if the home is owner-occupied. (That is, properties not abandoned or not a rental owned by a landlord who does not follow-up with their tenants. We expect landlords to hire landscapers for their income properties when need be. Rentals should not be viewed as simply a paycheck -- we expect landlords to put in the investment when need be.)

I fully agree, believe me, that neighbors should help neighbors more!!! I grew up doing my elderly neighbor's yard work because it was the right thing to do. If everyone pitched in when they saw a neighbor in distress, my dept. would have more time for the the more serious, safety-infringing issues. We'd all be better off. Unfortunately, this is not always the world we live in. I appreciate your concerns, I really do.
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I am closing out this issue to avoid any further conflicts between users. We all know arguing on the Internet is not very productive, unfortunately. Thank you for your understanding.

USER "coz" -- Thank you VERY much for reaching out to the family. This helps everyone out a lot. Time will be given to come into compliance. I left the WARNING on their mailbox as a courtesy, so the family knows who to contact in the City if they need to & so neighbors know the City is aware of the situation at 6811 Madison Ave.
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I understand everyone's frustrations. Do know that the letters & the green stickers we've sent out & posted are WARNINGS. I repeat -- WARNINGS. Those warnings include a 10-day period to address the issues or to at least contact us and explain why they need more time. We give more time to residents who need it! (Do note we have given almost everyone longer than that standard 10-day period, because we do try to work with homeowners & sympathize with the rain.) --- These warnings are NOT citations or fines. We do NOT "fine" people for tall grass unless they abandon the property and/or ignore the issue for months, and the City must then spend your taxpayer money to hire landscapers. At that point, we expect owners to pay us back for the landscapers we hired, which I believe is fair to the taxpayers. (In the vast majority of cases, the City does not re-coup its money & must chalk it up as losses spent helping improve our neighborhoods.)

I have been avoiding issuing citations as much as I can so far this Spring for tall grass if the home is owner-occupied. (That is, properties not abandoned or not a rental owned by a landlord who does not follow-up with their tenants. We expect landlords to hire landscapers for their income properties when need be. Rentals should not be viewed as simply a paycheck -- we expect landlords to put in the investment when need be.)

I fully agree, believe me, that neighbors should help neighbors more!!! I grew up doing my elderly neighbor's yard work because it was the right thing to do. If everyone pitched in when they saw a neighbor in distress, my dept. would have more time for the the more serious, safety-infringing issues. We'd all be better off. Unfortunately, this is not always the world we live in. I appreciate your concerns, I really do.
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I am closing out this issue to avoid any further conflicts between users. We all know arguing on the Internet is not very productive, unfortunately. Thank you for your understanding.

No one reached out to the family. The family has been aware of this since the beginning and when they made the comment about the rain and ruining the mower. You posted posted what sounded like a threat to “head there ASAP”. Where the home is vacant or not it’s pure crap to think that you can cite them d give them 10 days in the rain to fix it when the city itself has stated that they will not cut the grass in the rain and that it will get done when it is next scheduled. Unless raining. That’s a double standard!!! And then from what I could tell every time the family tried to defend themselves the app blocked it. I noticed that on other people’s issues too.

Is this the only residence in Hammond where it rains?? I believe I have the same amount of rain and my yard is cut and manicured once if not twice a week! And I work 50+ hours a week.

May 31st, 4:30PM update:

Just so everyone knows -- I did just speak with a son of the deceased owners on the phone. They are making arrangements to have the property regularly mowed & to get the wild trees on the side & front cut down. They intend to have an estate sale by the end of June (so keep your eye peeled for that) & get on to putting the house on the real estate market ASAP.