NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. (WKBW) — Community members have poured in their support for Justine Burger and Kenneth Johnson Jr.’s family. Donations have paid their $2,300 fine from the City of Niagara Falls for running a garden in their front yard.
“It’s a huge weight lifted off our shoulders,” Burger said. “Once the fine was covered, we kind of took a breath of fresh air.”
On Tuesday, Burger and her fiancé, Johnson Jr., told me that they were buying seedlings and soil to plant their garden for the fifth consecutive year. However, the Niagara Falls DPW suddenly ended their tradition.
Johnson Jr. and Burger told me the city removed their entire garden without warning, and that the city explained to them that the garden was a “hazard."
In addition to financial support, some viewers have donated in other ways. Burger said somebody dropped off bricks to reline a new garden in their backyard as soon as possible.
The City of Niagara Falls has responded to this situation. Mayor Robert Restaino sent a nine-page response defending the city DPW’s actions, which you can read in full below.
The end of that document says:
After carefully reviewing this matter, the Executive Office has concluded that the Director of DPW and his staff properly applied and followed the Clean Neighborhood Ordinance relative to the recent enforcement action at 2627 Ontario Ave. One of the occupants was recently quoted as saying “I get what they are trying to do with this new ordinance against us, but there’s some flaws in it.” Yet, there is nothing new about the provisions of Chapter 738 that were enforced on April 21 at this address. Nor do we agree that there are any flaws in those provisions. The public should also know that every workday, the Clean Team performs between six to twenty clean-ups on private property under Chapter 738 with no complaints being registered.
In closing, much of the reporting to date has been both sensational and misinformed, which has had the unfortunate effect of feeding the anger of some of our citizen’s lesser angels. The administrative staff of DPW have now started receiving phone calls threatening their safety based on a belief that the City has targeted a family rather than the unsafe and unlawful conditions that the family created both on public property and the private property that they rent. The Clean Team has one of the toughest jobs in the City, and they should never be vilified for doing their jobs and following the laws and the ordinances that were passed on the local and federal level.
