The Free Press, Mankato, MN

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October 12, 2012

Your View: Mankato container law doesn’t add up

Dan Zimmerli, Mankato

We have lived at our Mankato residence for six years now and for the most part without incident. About a week ago, I received a certified letter from the city stating that there was a complaint and that we had a Class 2 nuisance violation of city ordinance section 3.62. That ordinance reads: “Containers supplied or approved by the City for collection shall be placed at the curb line for collection. Containers shall not be placed in the public right-of-way before 12:00 p.m. (noon) the day after collection and shall not be stored in the required front yard setback.”

The issue was related to where the containers are placed when not out for collection. After about a week, one of Mankato’s finest had to stop out to make sure I received the letter and that we were going to comply. I asked if we were the only complaint filed and she was not able to tell me, only that she was assigned our specific case. I agreed with the officer that it is a strange law, and after she mentioned that it would make sense if the problem was with it being in the street, but that where it is when it’s not shouldn’t seem to matter.

I thanked her and told her we would take care of it. I mentioned that I could see the concern if the location of the container caused some sort of harm.

This whole experience has me wondering just how petty others can be and how wasteful our city government ends up being for wasting taxpayer dollars.

So is this a law that should be enforced, or taken off the books, or at least rewritten? Is it a good law, or just plain garbage?

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