City of Marysville revises ordinance to clean up 'junk' in yards



MARYSVILLE, Wash. -- Mounds of trash and junk in yards are complaints the city of Marysville has been working to address. It’s why this week, city leaders passed a new Public Nuisances ordinance.

Mike Oleson has lived in his Marysville home for the past 15 years. However, in recent years, he said, trash and junk accumulating in his neighbor’s yard has been difficult to tolerate.

“If you look at the side of the house, that garbage has been stored for over two years,” said Oleson. “I don’t know if you can smell the odor in the air; there’s a lot of animal feces coming from that place.”

Oleson and other neighbors have filed complaints on the neighbor’s home before. The owner tells Q13 News that her neighbors are exaggerating the trash in her yard. She said she cleans when she can, and even showed us copies of receipts of trips she said she made to the recycling plant.

“We’ve had a few complaints about some pretty egregious properties,” said Marysville City Council member Jeff Seibert.

Seibert said it’s why he and other city leaders agreed to pass a rewrite of the “public nuisances” city code, which adds more items that are prohibited and expands the city’s ability to enforce it.  However, he clarified that code enforcement wouldn’t be actively looking for violators but instead would investigate specific complaints.

While neighbors said it won’t solve all the issues, they said it’s a big first step.

“You can’t change people, but you can change behavior and I think that’s hopefully what the code is going to do,” said Oleson.