Grand Forks wants man to mow ‘weeds’; he sues for $10K

The corner of S. 5th Street and Demers Ave., during happier times. Photo via Google.

An update now on the stand-off between Grand Forks, N.D., attorney Henry Howe and the city’s Board of Health, which is threatening to mow a little spit of land Howe owns downtown and charge him $150 for the effort.

Last week Howe seemed to take issue with the notion that the tall weeds were undesirable. Plus, one man’s weeds and all that.

Now he says it’s all about “high.” One person’s “high” is another person’s claim for $10,000 in damages.

“The legal issue is that there is no statute in Grand Forks that would be enforceable,” Howe says in a complaint against the Board, according to the Grand Forks Herald story. “You can say, ‘I think your grass is pretty high.’ And I could say, ‘yeah, that’s true, I think it is.’ But there’s no ordinance that defines what ‘high’ is.”

The Herald, itself, is also a target of Howe’s ire. He says the situation was leaked to the newspaper before he got notice about the city’s threat to mow the property.

City officials were not available to comment.