FARMVILLE – On the heels of one of the wettest winters in recent memory, feet are going to be walking behind lawnmowers as the weather warms.

Or else.

It won't pay to be lazy about cutting the grass in Farmville.

Call it “fine” weather.

Town Council has adopted new penalties last month to address unkempt property, such as grass left uncut and so ignored that the yard becomes unsightly with the green mop top:

One hundred dollars for the first violation within a six-month period, $250 for the second and $500 for each additional violation occurring in any six-month period.

The Town drew inspiration from an ordinance in Alexandria and the Town's property inspector, Kim Thompson, believes the cash incentives will work in Farmville as they have in Alexandria.

“He basically summed it up in a sentence or two,” Thompson said after speaking with a city official in Alexandria. “He said he sends a warning letter like I do and then he said after they haven't complied with it in 10 days he sends them a bill for $100. And he said, 'You will get a phone call after the hundred-dollar bill.' He said they ignore the warning letter-you never hear from them after that (a warning letter). He said, 'but the money gets their attention.'

“And he said he rarely has to go past the $100 fine. Usually that gets their attention and they want to take care of it,” Thompson said.

The same approach will provide similar results, she believes. “I think that this might get quicker attention to things that need to be taken care of,” Thompson said of what she described as “a fairly big problem, especially during the summer months when the grass grows. Especially if we've had a lot of rain.”

Most often, the same properties appear on her monthly inspection reports to Town Council.

“You have your repeat offenders that you're always going to have,” Thompson said. “It's the same properties. And every now and again I get a new one and it's basically a landlord that lives out of state and somebody's moved out and he didn't know about it; usually they clear it up pretty quickly.”

Town Manager Gerald Spates was also drawn to the number of repeat offenders and had suggested the stiffer fines to address the problem.

“What I like about Alexandria's (ordinance) is the fines,” he said when raising the topic for the first time during Town Council's November work session. “The first violation in a six-month period is a hundred bucks, after that it goes to $250 and then $500…I think it would take care of the repeat offenders.”

Town Council member Jamie Davis agreed, predicting the fines would be “motivating.”

The Town is about to find out.

According to WFLO, the National Weather Service's Cooperative Observer for the region, Farmville had a surplus of 2.82 inches of precipitation fall during the first three months of the year, nearly three inches more than January-March historical average.

You can almost hear the grass starting to grow as the weather becomes more and more fine every day.