CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Recent rains that have come through the Coastal Bend could be contributing to the issue of unattended tall grass.
Corpus Christi Code Enforcement Assistant Director of Compliance Tracey Cantu said that her department is approximately one month behind schedule due to previous rain events.
"We had heavy rain events in April into May, and that caused the grass to sprout up," she said.
Cantu said her department is working on a new initiative to encourage volunteer groups to clean up properties where age, disability or income prevent individuals from maintaining their yard.
"I would like to make a shout out or reach out for our community where if you are part of a group or an individual who wants to donate some time and have the equipment and the capability to do that, we want to create a network of those volunteers," she said.
Corpus Christi City Councilman Roland Barrera said he supports the new volunteer initiative. However, he also wants to make sure that code enforcement cracks down on violators who show negligence.
"The ones that are obviously people from neglect, they're not taking care of their properties, or their absentee property owners that need to take care of their properties. Those are the ones we really need to assess," he said.
Cantu says that she currently has 20 code compliance officers working in the field but still needs to hire an additional eight people to help improve the city's perception.
"We are working from our major thoroughfares, our freeways into our major streets, our collectors streets, and then get into the neighborhood level," she said. "So we work where people are we change that and we change that perception of Corpus Christi that as folks come to visit our city they see a cleaner, better Corpus Christi."
Some areas around town that need to be tended to are the AEP power station on 11th St. and Coleman Avenue, and the vacant lot at 20th St. and Laredo Street.
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