Volunteers take a little – OK a lot – off the top

LIMA - "What about the haircut?" Gregg Wilson asked Kathy Lewis, sitting on a red cooler handing out squares of paper with city-supplied addresses - marching orders for the highest grass in the 6th Ward.

Wilson, of Cairo, and his brother Alex Wilson, of Lima, had come to volunteer in the Saturday morning "mowathon" Lewis organized, seeking help to cut grass at some of the city's most offending properties, now vacant, foreclosed or both.

Lewis, owner of Clippers, promised free haircuts and other prizes to those who showed up to help. The Wilson brothers, shown evidence of the gift cards, hopped in the pickup and drove the John Deere riding mower over to yards on Broadway and Greenlawn avenues.

The men said they wanted to help clean up the city, and they didn't mind the haircuts, either. They were among a couple dozen folks who showed up out of many motivations to help clean up the city, if only temporarily.

The turnout heartened Lewis.

"People are showing up. It's great," Lewis said. "People think people live in these houses and just don't cut their grass. That's not true. The houses are vacant, and trying to track down who owns them doesn't solve the problem of mosquitoes, possums and rats. Kids play in there and get bit and stung. It lowers the property value. I live on West High Street and there are properties there like this, and it drives me crazy."

Lewis planned to weed and mow the St. Johns Avenue underpass area, at which the city had donated trees and bushes with the expectation the area would be maintained by the community, Lewis said. Except that it hadn't and Lewis, a former landscaper and greenhouse owner, planned to change that.

Fifth Ward Councilman Tommy Pitts is interested in a mowathon for his ward, Lewis said, so that area could be next.

 Sixth Ward Councilman Derry Glenn and Albert Avenue resident and volunteer James B. Bowers helped trustees from the Allen County Jail at a Reese Avenue property. Men, women and children with mowers fanned out through the ward before meeting back at the Rev. King Beverly's church on Eighth Street for lunch.

Bowers, 78, donated the use of his grill for lunch and brought out his riding mower and planned to help as much as he could, to support any effort to clean up the city.

Glenn said he understood that larger problems, such as the need for jobs, exist in the city.

"This is what I've worked for, to show we can work together to make the 6th Ward a beautiful place," Glenn said. "We've got more problems in the city than high grass. But we can work hard to make our city look decent. This is what it takes: Neighbor helping neighbor."