The Lovell Police Department is using a new technique to serve weed, nuisance and junk vehicle letters this year in an attempt to make the town safer and better looking. The LPD has assigned one officer to focus on serving letters, allowing the rest of the department to concentrate on other investigations and cases. 
School Resource Officer Randy Davis is in charge of serving the letters during the summer months when school isn’t in session. He also keeps track of properties in town that violate town ordinances regarding weeds, nuisances and junk vehicles and evaluate their progress after a violation letter is served. Davis will still be on call for back up and available during his shift for other calls, but his primary focus will be ordinance violation letters. He will continue to write traffic tickets if he sees violations, he said.
Chief of Police Nick Lewis said the change was made to have the SRO focus on serving the letters after Lewis and town administrator Bart Grant discussed a way to make the ordinance letters a priority while not straining the rest of the department. Lewis said because the letters are usually served during the daytime, the process would often impede on his own time when there are many other important cases to which he must attend.
Lewis said the ordinances are enforced “to make Lovell a better place for all of us.” He said many people who move to town tell the LPD they moved to Lovell because it looks clean and like a nice place to live. He said that is a main reason for enforcing the weeds and nuisance ordinances, as well as public safety because of the fire hazards and animal infestations common with junk in yards.
“It’s a health and safety issue and also an aesthetics issue,” Lewis said.
Once served a letter, the property owner has 14 days to comply with the reason for being served the letter, or be subject to a citation requiring an appearance in court. Davis said many of the court appearances do not require payment of a fine, but following the appearance, the judge has oversight of the compliance as well as the LPD. The person will usually be assessed court costs for the apperance, he said.
A weed letter may be served to any property owner who is found to be in violation of a town ordinance that states yards must be free of unsightly weeds. 
A nuisance letter may be served for a yard that contains junk, trash, dismantled vehicles or other items that may harbor insects or vermin or pose some sort of public health or safety risk.
Property owners are permitted to have up to one unregistered vehicle on their property. The vehicle must be covered with a tarp, garage or carport, he said. Properties with more than one unregistered vehicle will be given a letter of non-compliance. Letters contain an explanation of the town ordinances in question along with a detailed description of the issue of non-compliance at the property, he said.
Upon failure to comply with requests or court orders to remove junk, vehicles or weeds, the town may hire someone to do so, and charge the property owner for the removal.
Davis said if he sees progress of a property owner toward compliance following the request and they finish the job within 14 days, they will not receive a citation and will be dropped from the list of properties to check up on. If the property falls back out of compliance, the process starts over again and the person may be served another letter asking for compliance within 14 days.
There is help available to Lovell residents who are handicapped or elderly or can’t keep their yard in compliance for other reasons. He said residents in need of assistance should contact the LPD and inquire about church groups or people who need community service to help with their yard. The Town of Lovell has a trailer available for bulk trash pick up for a fee, Davis said.
Davis said he has served 40 or 50 letters to residents. He said most people are pleasant and 98 percent of them take care of the requests without a court order, but a few people have been upset after receiving a letter from him.
In response to residents who say the LPD is favoring certain people, Davis said he is serving letters to the owner of any property that he observes to be out of compliance or any property that the LPD receives a legitimate complaint about. He said town employees and the Town of Lovell itself have been served multiple letters.
Lewis said assigning SRO Davis as ordinance enforcement officer in the summer seems to be making a positive impact on enforcement so far.
Davis said the LPD doesn’t give out letters to pick on people, but to keep the town safe and nice looking. If they didn’t serve the letters, they would receive a lot of complaints about the ordinance violations around town, he said.