City sends cease and desist letter to local landscaper

The city of Blaine sent a cease and desist letter to a local landscaper for pulling weeds, trimming bushes and laying mulch on city property without the city’s permission.

Blaine resident Mike Andes, local owner of Augusta Lawn Care Services, was sent a cease and desist letter July 8 from a city attorney after posting two different videos on YouTube June 18 and June 23 of him doing unauthorized landscaping around the Blaine city sign on SR-543.

The letter asked Andes to halt all work on city property and remove the posted videos or the city would take legal action.

Andes then posted a response video July 9 titled, “Legal action against me – for doing free community service” that received nearly 80,000 views.

The city has since entered into negotiations with Augusta Lawn Care for future work, Blaine city manager Michael Jones said.

The cease and desist letter was sent after the city received a complaint, with a link to one of his YouTube videos, from a resident about Andes using pesticides or herbicides on the property, Jones said. It’s unclear whether any harmful chemicals were used.

Andes said it was Blaine business owner Mike Hill’s idea to clean up the town signs before the Fourth of July and in preparation for the long-expected reopening of the border.

Hill, owner of Hill’s Chevron on Peace Portal Drive, has mowed unkempt lawns and cleaned blackberry bushes around Blaine for several years. He said he has mowed railroad, government and city property across town without getting a permit or approval.

Hill and Andes came to an agreement that Augusta Lawn Care would clean up the city signs.

Jones said he was still unsure whether any state laws were violated. If the job was purely a volunteer effort, he said it would certainly lower the severity of the possible violation. He said volunteer policies could’ve been broken and the fact that free work was being done on city property raises questions for the city’s unions.

“We greatly appreciate volunteer efforts, but all we ask is that those who wish to do so contact the city first,” Jones said.

Andes still has two signs with landscaping left to do on Marine Drive and Peace Portal Drive, north and south of downtown. Those are scheduled for early August and will be done in coordination with the city, Jones said.