city property vs. homeowners' (Marion, Herrin: sales, city hall, house)

[scorned neighbor]

My husband & I are tax paying homeowners in Herrin IL. We have two neighbors that constantly complain about every little thing we do or don't do. We are younger than both sets of neighbors & one moved in 1.5 yrs. after us. These same neighbors have measured our grass so they can mow theirs the same heighth as ours. They call city hall on a daily basis & constantly cause us grief. Recently one of these neighbors called city hall about our free-standing yard sale signs in the neighborhood placed on corners with the homeowners' permission. The city was forced to react since these constant complainers have become a thorn in their sides. My family is good hardworking people whose reputations are being tarnished by these retired people with nothing better to do than stress over matching our grass blade lenghth. We were here first & we keep our property in great condition, we are not noisy partiers, & we have always been very considerate of staying off of their properties so we are not moving. Anyone have suggestions for us on how to deal with such difficult neighbors? scorned n

Recently our city government in Herrin IL passed an ordinance not allowing the posting of yard sale signs on posts, utility poles, public property, etc... We can only post free-standing signs on private property with the homeowners permission. All of this I agree on. I think it is tacky & trashy to attach signs to stopsigns, poles, etc..., let alone never taking them down after your sale. I have had 1 or 2 yard sales per year and have never tacked my signs to anything but a short wooden stake placed in the corner of homeowners yards with their permission, of course. I have always tried to be considerate & place them out of the occupants way & close to corner of intersections for maximum visibility. Also, I have always went back after my sales & collected all signs. This time, however; the city employees drove around & took my signs down, threw them in a trash dumpster behind the police station, didn't bother to contact me & explain anything so I could correct my sign placement issues, & told me when I called them that I would be getting a fine in the mail. Now, again I agree with the ordinance. However, not one homeowner I received permission from informed me that anything @ 15 feet from the road or on the street side of the sidewalk was city property & I would have to get their permission instead. This leads me to believe that most homeowners are as misinformed as I am about where city responsibility begins & homeowner's responsibility ends. Although, technically, the sidewalk is the city's property & everything to the street from there...why does the city tell someone that gets hurt on the sidewalk to sue the homeowner? Why are we as homeowner's expected to upkeep & mow the land between the sidewalk & street but not allowed to give each other permission to place signs there since it is city property? I was told if we stopped mowing just that patch of "city property" in front of our house (even if we mowed the rest of our yard) we would get a fine for violation of the weeds ordinance. Go-Figure!!! Can anyone explain to me why we are mislead by our city governments to take care of their properties for them? When did our city employees decide they are doing us a favor by working for us, even though our tax dollars pay their salaries? I wouldn't have had such a problem with this scenario if someone would have just stopped by to bring me my signs back & explained how I could fix the violation. I wasn't given any respect as a tax paying homeowner. Am I completely crazy for feeling this way? scorned neighbor

[dlldhwh]

Just one thing can describe Herrin, Il. NO RIGHTS if You or FAMILY WERE NOT BORN HERE....Thats why the older people (their family members) have their complaints taken care of even if their wrong.., The longer your here the more you'll hate it.I've been here 20 LONG years, only until my daughter graduates from Marion High School Hearing Impaired Dept..Then I can finally sell and get out....Herrin is owned By city hall NOT the Taxpayer, City hall is owned and ran by "The Family"....

[artemis]

Our street had some characters like that. They called about everything.

Complain to the police that this harassment. They might counsel the old timers about making *nuisance calls* to them. Ours did. There are laws regarding doing that. Push back ....