For property owners who think keeping their yards maintained isn’t important, maybe a $500 fee will change their tune.

Right now, the Ironton Health Department has a list of 17 properties with overgrown yards that will be cut at the owners’ expense.

Add that to the list of 22 properties that need to be inspected by the health department due to complaints and the 14 other properties that have been served with a notice to comply with cleanup orders, that’s more than 50 properties that have become eyesores and potential health hazards to the community.

Health commissioner Laura Brown said she has inspected some yards with grass as tall as she is.

“Some are abandoned (properties), some are renters and won’t keep up with it and the landlords live away from here,” Brown said.

For city residents with concerns about unkempt properties, help may just be a phone call or email away.

“These are all complaint-driven,” Brown said. “I do not go up and down the street looking.”

Complaints can be made to the health department anonymously and when the health department receives those complaints, the first step is to go out and view the property to see if it is overgrown or if there is trash and other household waste piling up. If the property needs to be cleaned, a photo is taken and the parcel owner is sought out, with help from the county auditor’s website.

Next a letter is sent out notifying the owners that action needs to be taken. If no response is given within five days, the health department sends its crew to mow and clean. After-photos are taken and placed in a file with the original letter.

Fees will be assessed to the property owner’s taxes the following year.

“We’re not cheap,” Brown said. “I really don’t want to have to do this, but with the mosquitoes and rodents, we’ve got raccoons and possums and rats … And stray dogs hang out on these properties.”

The fee for noncompliance is $500. Based on lot size, fees of $50-150 are added. Depending on how poorly maintained a property is, the fee increases as well. Grass that is 13-16 inches high adds another $75. To remove a truckload of debris is $75 and $80 for every other truck thereafter. If a frontend loader or Bush Hog is needed, tack on an additional $50.

The health department contracts with a team of workers that do the work, Brown said.

“These guys go out in filth, people leave trash out there for months,” she said. “They cut the grass and try to make it look nice, but they are not a lawn service.”

Previously, the health department only charged a $50-fee for noncompliance. Since raising the rates, Brown said more people take care of the problem themselves.

“Out of 10 letters, I probably get four that comply and six who do not,” she said. “Now that it’s $500, we get people’s attention.”

Even still, Brown said the health department sees only a fraction of the money returned. In 2014, the department assessed $66,000 and have so far only received about $20,000.

In 2015, the department assessed more than $80,000. Brown estimated the department probably wouldn’t get back more than $22,000.

For abandoned properties, the taxes are cleared after the third and final sheriff’s sale.

“But as long as we can pay the workers and get the grass cut, that’s all that matters,” Brown said.