Omaha neighbors voice frustrations over overgrown public property now eyesore

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - Some homeowners in a northwest Omaha neighborhood are scratching their heads over a section of overgrown public property.

A small stretch of common area that the city is responsible for mowing has repeatedly been missed.

As a city mowing contractor buzzes by across the street Michael Walter wonders why the common area behind his house hasn’t made the cut.

“They haven’t mowed it once this year. And then it makes me look bad because it’s right outside my property,” said Walter.

After years of city crews maintaining public areas in Willow Wood this summer, the parks department hired a private contractor to mow. But a section on the corner and down around behind about six homes have been skipped over and over.

“I don’t want to start mowing this area outside my fence because then they’ll never do it. Then I’m stuck mowing this huge piece of property that’s not mine, that I don’t own,” said Walter.

Neighbor J.T. Eulberg says four times missed already this mowing season.

“It’s terrible, it’s a mess,” said Eulberg.

J.T. says the unmowed section of the common area is an eyesore because it’s along a main entrance to the neighborhood with 800 homes.

With the median and park freshly mowed, J.T. asks what’s wrong with this picture? So he recently asked the mowing crew why did they skip most of the common area on the north side of the street.

“They looked on their phone and said well it’s not on the map. I don’t know who gave them the map of what to mow,” said Eulberg.

The mowing crew would only say the city provided them with a map and several public areas are not on it.

Omaha’s parks director says we have already worked with our contractor on correcting those issues. The areas that were missed have been addressed.

He says the contractor is new to the location and it can take some time at the start of the season to make sure everything is properly in place. Neighbors like J.T. Eulberg are growing impatient.

“I want them to get it mowed, that’s all,” said Eulberg.

The crew was left messages but their boss didn’t reply.

However, several areas not on the city map and missed have now been mowed. The section 6 News shown along the entrance has yet to be cut but we’ll check on it Friday.

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