Mayor won't cut lawn

Blackey , KY -- Mayor Mike Dixon posted a sign on the fence around his overgrown lawn. "There are more important things in life than tall grass," it reads. Dixon hasn't mowed his lawn since last year, and has declined offers from neighbors to cut the grass.

"He's just that type that likes to be his own person," said Martha Burns, a member of the Blackey City Council and the Blackey Improvement Committee. "He's always been like that."

Burns said she doesn't have a problem with the mayor's unkempt lawn.

"If he likes it like that, it's fine," she said. "... I kind of feel like maybe he is right. Maybe there are more important things than mowing grass."

Dixon's next-door neighbor, Jo Ann Walters, said the mayor is a fine man and a good neighbor who just doesn't intend to mow his yard.

"I've laughed about it," Walters said.

Neither the city of Blackey nor Letcher County has a law requiring residents to keep their lawns trimmed. Letcher County officials considered passing a nuisance ordinance two years ago, but decided against it.

Dixon, a psychology professor at Hazard Community College, said he has several reasons for letting his yard grow, including in remembrance of his late wife, Jane, who died of breast cancer in November.

"What I wanted to say was, 'yes, I let my yard grow up, but I'm still the same person. Let's talk about it,'" he said.

Dixon said people can save time and money by giving away their mowers like he did.

"I don't want to fight nature anymore," he said.

Dixon said flowers began popping up in his yard when he stopped pushing a mower across it. He said birds and squirrels also moved in.

"I don't know why we cut grass, but I do know that I like to sit here in the evenings and enjoy what we have in eastern Kentucky," Dixon said.

Dixon said he doesn't like to hear the buzzing sound of lawn mowers and weed cutters when he is trying to relax and enjoy his surroundings.

"I think I have scared a lot of people off," he said. "They probably think I am weird."