James Garrett walks with a cane and still suffers from pain from war wounds during his 22-year tenure in the Marine Corps and two car accidents, but three days ago he bought some lawn equipment and mowed his front yard.
“It was physically painful, very painful,” Garrett said. “Every step would send a shock up my back, but it’s something that had to be done, because I’m not going to take a citation from code enforcement.”
Garrett was concerned he’d get a ticket for his grass being too tall, because he says Warren’s Lawn Service hadn’t been to his home to mow in seven weeks despite the agreement he says they made in the Fall.
“His verbal contract with me was he would cut [the front yard] and the rear for a year for $700,” Garrett said.
Things were going fine at first. Garrett says lawn service owner Travis Warren would send out a crew twice a month for yard maintenance as stipulated in what Garrett referred to as their verbal contract. But Garrett said that changed seven weeks ago, and he says he’s not getting straight answers when he calls Warren to talk about it.
“All I get is messages and excuses,” Garrett said. “Oh, my wife’s pregnant. I’ve got this problem. I’ve got that problem. And the other problem is, he’s not fulfilling his contractual obligations by cutting this grass.”
Phone calls to Warren Lawn Service were not returned Tuesday. The address for the business listed online is a house where a trailer for the business sat outside today. A man answered a knock at the door but claimed he wasn’t Warren and that he’d let Warren know of Action 10’s visit.
Garrett plans to send a certified letter to Warren. He says if he doesn’t answer in ten days he’ll take him to court. Garrett says the law service owes him a little over $1,000. He says that includes the remainder of the money he paid up front for a year’s worth of lawn service in October, court costs, the price of the lawn equipment he bought, and the value of the time he’s spent trying to get this matter resolved.
“I’m an old tenacious Marine,” Garrett said. “If I can’t get through it, I’ll get over it, around it, or under it. I will get to my objective.”
