KENNEWICK — Recent windstorms have blown piles of tumbleweeds onto Lara Grimes’ property in Kennewick, and she wants help from the city to clear them out.
The light rolling uprooted plants have filled her driveway, packed her front porch and created a headache for her neighborhood
. The weeds are stacked taller than she is.
“When we get the high winds, we get this problem,” she said Thursday, after surveying the wasteland of dried weeds amassed in her front yard. “It’s been like this for 10 years.”
Grimes’ plea to the Kennewick City Hall prompted a big truck to come and haul away one load, but it hardly put a dent the thousands of roly-poly plants that line the yards in Panoramic Heights.
Municipal services director Peter Beaudry told the Tri-City Herald there isn’t an easy solution. He says it’s the property owner’s responsibility to clear them if they blow onto private property.
“They told me they don’t have the manpower to help, and I can’t put anything on the street. I can’t burn them in my driveway, so what can be done?” Grimes asked.
Beaudry said burning tumbleweeds is allowed by city codes as long as it can be safely done. The Benton Clean Air Agency said tumbleweeds that blow onto your property can be burned at any time, regardless of the burn day, as long as no other vegetation is burned, the newspaper reported.
City crews used to help clear the streets in Panoramic Heights of tumbleweeds. “It has become a matter of resources,” Beaudry said. “We’ve had significant cuts in recent years.”
Grimes thinks recent construction projects that have cleared land in the Southridge area have made it easier for the wind to shove the tumbleweeds right up to her door.
Residents have been stuffing large trash containers ever since the first plants began cartwheeling into the neighborhood about two months ago. Another wave of the pesky plants rolled in a week ago.
Beaudry suggested residents call the city’s garbage service, Waste Management, to see they can work out a deal for a neighborhood sweep.
Grimes said it’s a fire and traffic hazard and the city should have some role in clearing the nasty weeds.
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