Kitchener mayor unimpressed with tall grass in public areas

This year has been the worst for grass cutting in public areas around Waterloo Region.

That’s according to Kitchener Mayor Berry Vrbanovic. He brought the concern to regional council last week.

“The vast majority of the people I hear from, at least, are saying, ‘This is not acceptable,'” he told the Mike Farwell Show on Monday. “Twelve to 18-inch height is not acceptable. We don’t accept that from the residents in our community, so how is it okay for us to be doing that?”

He was recently driving down Westmount Road when he noticed the grass was taller than the fire hydrants.

“In the winter months, they put those extensions on the fire hydrants so the fire departments can see them through the snow,” said Vrbanovic. “But they’re not there during the summer months, and it was kind of like, this needs to be addressed and this needs to be addressed soon.”

The Region of Waterloo is currently on a six-cycle cut with contractors tending to the grass once per month from May to October.

Vrbanovic believes the grass cutting problem began when the region began hiring contractors. The cities cut the grass previously, which worked well because they could operate on a fee-per-service basis. That helped during the early months when the grass grows faster.

“We know that at the start of the year, things are heavier and as the year goes on it gets easier because typically things get dry in the summer and we don’t need to cut as often,” he said.

During the most recent budget process, regional council opted to reduce spending on grass cutting from $200,000 to $100,000, and the number of grass cuts per season from 12 to six.