Letter to the Editor:

Last week, a sworn officer of this has stopped by at my home and told members of my household that the mayor of Toledo has ordered that the two large leaf plants at the front yard and along my patio at the back of my home had to be removed because the were noxious weeds.

Later the same officer called me on my cell phone while I was in the yard and I informed the officer that I was the owner of this property and that my property taxes were paid and that I didn’t need or seek any assistance in managing my property. I told that to the members of my household use averaged two or three hours a day puttering around tending the yard, landscaping, setting field stone etc. and that I was at that moment looking at the yard along State Street, that was in question and that there were no weeds.

The officer replied that if the noxious weeds weren’t removed right away that the city crew would come on to my property and remove the weeds. A bill for this service would then be sent. And that if I refused to pay the bill it would be added to my property taxes bill. The unspoken understanding of course that if I didn’t pay for this unrequested work to employ a city work crew that I would lose my home for not paying this arbitrarily applied tax fine.

The matter was discussed with my family members bot here and out of town and since I couldn’t afford to pay the hundreds of dollars of a city worker crews to remove the two plants that would represent a capricious tax fine we were being financial leveraged and the three foot tal plants would have to be removed.

Since I had to go off to work them my brother Jim volunteered to dig up the two root balls. At least that way the plant residue would not be carried off by the city workers and we would still have the evidence.

The next day I carried the bundle wrapped in plastic to the Iowa State University County Extention Office located across the street form the Toledo Police Station.

The County Extention EducationDirector Franklin Albertsen was on vacation but when his staff contacted him he generously volunteered to come into the office the next morning and examine and identify this plant. (The is a positive attitude trait of Every Iowa State graduate that I’ve ever meet.)

When I stopped into the friendly County Extention office the next day I was informed that the Plante in question were young American Basswood Tree. The plants with those beautiful big a pie plate leaves was a slade tree. I asked could this ever be considered to be a noxious weed and I was told no it’s a tree.

If the local mayor and police are going to manage our property for us and treat us like bound-to-the -land Eastern-European labor to jump to their bergermeister orders, the least that they could do is to know what they are doing. Better yet, abandon this realtors work, and do what they’re paid to do: Police Work.

I am hereby publically asking the City of Toledo $500 per shade tree and $750 for my brothers good labor. You can apply it to my property taxes.

John Maplethorpe

Toledo