Neighbors Say Eyesore Yard Also Spreading Rats | Firstcoastnews.com | Local News
ST. JOHNS COUNTY, FL — In the St. Augustine Shores neighborhood in St. Johns County, neighbors say one house stands out from the others.“The whole place is just a total wreck,” says neighbor Mike Kennedy.
Kennedy says he has watched the huge collection of junk in his neighbor’s yard steadily growing larger. It has reached the point where code enforcement visited last week.
“All it’s doing is devaluing the property all around and it’s becoming a real health hazard,” says Kennedy.
And now neighbors say it’s more than the mess. Rats are living in the junk in the yard and spreading out across the neighborhood.
“The rats have just started coming into my yard,” says one neighbor.
“We think the junk inside and outside is what has drawn the rats and is what is making them accumulate there,” says another neighbor, who didn’t want to be identified.
Neighbors are also worried about the woman who lives in the house and uses a wheelchair. They say they have offered to help her but were turned down.
First Coast News went to talk to the homeowner, and off camera she said she has hired someone to move the junk to comply with code enforcement.
But this time she did agree to accept help from her neighbors.
“If it needs to be cleaned up inside, maybe we could help do that. If it had to be repainted, maybe we could get a bunch of volunteers from the neighborhood together and go over and help her,” says Kennedy.
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