A company called Mile High Lawn Aeration has struck hard in Colorado Springs. I've been trying to report them to COS code enforcement. They've been very effective in eliminating the habitual offenders. But these signs continue to appear. The signs are white with red letters:
LAWN AERATION 578-1010
They have been at it for weeks. What should we do?
1. Report to COS Code Enforcement 444-7891? 2. Shark them? 3. Just remove them? 4. What did you do in Denver (I'm assuming they are based in Denver)?
Many are posted in the ROW, but some are on private property.
Interesting. There were a bunch of lawn aeration signs around here too but not anymore. I did a reverse directory lookup and found the address of the guy and drove by. It must have been the right place because there was a sign on his lawn too. I was tempted to return his signs to him cut in half but that could get me arrested for littering his lawn! Maybe there is a lawn aeration street spam club just like the "rent to own street spam club?
Regarding possible "littering" charges, I had an interesting experience last fall here in Raleigh.
Some yahoo went around throwing baggies with a rock and an ad in them, in everyone's yard. I took it to the Raleigh PD and the City Council. According to them, as long as there's advertising on it, it isn't litter, regardless of how tacky and trashy it may be.
If your local laws are similar, it might be perfectly ok to return the cut-up but still legible signs to him via dumping them in his yard!
I actually received one of those little bags with a rock and a piece of litter (well everything but the rock was litter). It turned out being, oh my, shocking... Herbalife. I rode around my neighborhood and picked up about 50 of them.
I actually called the number on the lawn aeration sign and they identified themselves (recorded message) as Mile Hi. So I figured it was a Denver (The mile high city) based company.
We had the same thing happen here several years back.
One of the homeowners was out mowing his yard and hit one of the baggies advertising "Herbalife". Needless to say, the lawnmower blade sent the rock sailing thru one of his front windows, just missing one of his sons that was helping out in the front yard.
It was reported to the homeowners association and we did an investigation. We called the police after finding numerous yards in the area had the baggies scattered everywhere. The police came out and determined it was a severe safety hazard and got the CE guys involved.
CE managed to trace down the "downliner" and they prosecuted the case before the city attoney and city court. The Herbalife distributor, along with the person responsible for the baggie being thrown paid some pretty hefty penalties.
They thought by pleading a no contest, and agreeing to pay the fine, that they would get off with a hand slap. That didn't happen.
Moral of the story - If you approach it as a safety concern, call the police, then you'll get more action than by calling CE.
#5. "Lawn Aeration and other Perennials" In response to Reply # 4
We all know that different seasons bring out different types of weeds. The gun shows have their season, the Lawn Aereations have theirs - early spring. The latter's signs were particularly ubiquitous i9n Denver this year. How about remembering when the next "season" approaches and getting an alert on here to prepare people to "harvest" the latest "crop."
#6. "RE: Lawn Aeration and other Perennials" In response to Reply # 5
I'm surprised to hear about Mile Hi posting signs in public areas. I've used their service, and they automatically put a sign up in everyone's lawn they complete. They ask that the signs be left up for 2 weeks if you liked their service. But this is on private property. I'm disappointed to hear that they have resorted to putting signs up elsewhere.
I even left the sign up on my lawn for the full 2 weeks despite my dislike of the sign. I figured I couldn't be a hypocrite and pull down the legally posted sign, and complain about illegal signs at the same time... caught in my own logical trap. DOH!
I'll have to rethink using their service if they are putting up signs in public places.
#7. "RE: Lawn Aeration and other Perennials" In response to Reply # 6
They were also posting some signs in people's yards. I left those alone. They also posted them in other places like the median on divided roads, in the ROW next to empty fields, and next to malls with no grass. When I contacted our CE they were already after them. So there must have been other complaints.
I haven't seen any new ones in the past couple weeks, so either the lawn aeration season is done, or they decided they didn't want to deal with calls from our code enforcement. In either case good riddance...
