Citing safety and costs, Seward County Roads Department Superintendent Jon Regnier is asking rural property owners to make sure they have mowed their rights of way and removed any hedges or trees growing there this fall.
Tall weeds, hedges and trees in the rights of way can impair motorists’ vision and cause other problems along rural roads.
Nebraska Statutes 39-1811 through 39-1813 require landowners to mow or remove trees, hedges or other undergrowth bordering public roads to avoid obstructing vision at or near roads and railroad crossings.
Rights of way include the land between the middle of the road and a 33-foot point on the property owner’s land, Regnier said. Taking away the portion that is the actual road, that usually leaves around 15 feet of ditch to be maintained.
“Most landowners just don’t know,” Regnier said.
County maintenance drivers, neighbors and county motorists sometimes alert the roads department to areas where visibility is impaired.
In conjunction with the Seward County Board of Commissioners and Weed Superintendent Matthew Mottaz, the department will be notifying some property owners who are in violation of the statute to ask them to mow or trim the areas by a specific time, after which, if the work is not done, the county will hire a contractor to mow or trim at the property owners’ expense.
That mowing and trimming work runs about $250 per hour, Regnier said.
According to Statute 39-1811 on mowing weeds, landowners are to mow once before July 15 and sometime in August, but Regnier said it is not too late to do a fall mowing to clean up the rights of way.
Statute 39-1812 requires property owners to remove fences, trees or undergrowth that “become a public nuisance to travel on the roads, or obstruct the view at or near railroad crossings, crossroads or abrupt turns in the road.” Hedges should be trimmed at least once per year to a height of four feet or less, while trees are allowed up to eight feet tall.
Trimmings are to be burned or removed from the right of way within 10 days of cutting.
