Nuisance or necessity?

MARENGO — Wearing T-shirt extolling the virtues of pollinators, Mark Siebrecht told the Marengo City Council last week that the plants in his yard are not a nuisance.

Siebrecht received a nuisance abatement notice for his property at 1405 Williams Ave. on which he keeps a pollinator garden.

Siebrecht showed the Marengo City Council ground thistles, pampas grass and stinging nettle that he grows on his CRP land in Conroy. He showed them lambs quarters and ragweed, weeds that are not part of the high growth in his yard, he said.

Then Siebrecht showed the council pollinator plants from his yard — baby’s breath, butterfly weed, coneflower and prickly lettuce.

Siebrecht said he’s had a pollinator patch in his yard for three years and has never been given a notice before. It’s not a nuisance, he said.

Councilman Travis Schlabach said he noticed the patch before he knew the Siebrecht was on the agenda for Wednesday night. “It’s got colorful flowers,” Schlabach said. It’s taken care of. He doesn’t have a problem with it.

Councilwoman Karen Wayson-Kisling doesn’t have a problem with it either. “When the bees are gone, we are dead,” she said.

Siebrecht asked why the ground had never been noted before.

Marengo Police Chief Ben Gray said he issued the abatement notice after seeing tall growth surrounding a tree in the yard. Pollinator patches he’s familiar with don’t usually include trees, he said.

The City has no ordinance governing pollinator gardens and prairie grasses, said Gray. He can’t make exceptions for dense growth of certain kinds of plants unless those exceptions are spelled out in city code.

Other Cities define pollinator gardens and have them registered. If they don’t people will use that as a defense for letting plants grow out of control on their properties, Gray said.

Siebrecht advised the city to update its ordinance so pollinator gardens are excluded from the definition of a nuisance.

Marengo’s nuisance ordinance requires that dense growth of weeds and other vegetation be removed if it constitutes a health, safety or fire hazard, which Siebrecht says his plants do not.

His pollinator plants are also not going to provide a place for mosquitoes to breed, Siebrecht said.

“There are plants that deter mosquitoes,” said Councilwoman Jennifer Olson, such as marigolds and lemon grass.

The city council voted to rescind the abatement notice Siebrecht received and asked the public safety committee prepare a procedure for granting a varience.