Maud plans to enforce yard ordinances, collect warrants

The city of Maud will soon begin issuing citations for code violations such as tall grass and trash piles, and the police chief is now offering a brief amnesty period to collect a total of $24,000 in outstanding traffic and city warrants before defendants are arrested.
Maud Police Chief Tom Bottoms said fliers have been placed at locations around town for a week and are even being sent home with local grocery store customers outlining enforcement of city ordinances will soon begin regarding tall grass and debris in yards.
Citations will begin being issued in the second week of December so residents have time to clean up. Violators could face a $359 citation.
“We must, for the safety of our children, property and ourselves, cut tall grass and weeds and keep them cut,” Bottoms said. “For those same reasons disabled vehicles, old equipment and trash piles,” must be removed, he said, adding it is against city ordinance to have a property with these issues.
Bottoms, who became chief in September after serving as assistant chief since April, said these issues are bad problems in Maud and must be corrected for safety and to help bring in new businesses and residents. He also hopes business owners will secure vacant properties.
Maud police also are planning future warrant sweeps but plan to give time to those with outstanding warrants to pay up.
“Persons with a warrant should get it paid quickly to prevent being arrested,” Bottoms said.
Some of the warrants go back several years. Most are recent warrants and involve some type of failure to pay payment plans on cases that have been adjudicated in city court for traffic offenses or municipal misdemeanors, he said.
Back when he started going through the warrants in April, there was about $35,000 in outstanding warrants. Those numbers are at about $24,000 today, he said.
Bottoms became a certified police officer in 1987 and served as assistant chief of Maud in 1986-87. He said he’s excited to be back in Maud and has many goals for the department.
He said he encourages the public to become an involved partner in law enforcement and welcomes input from the community, he said.