ORANGE PARK – Weeds, mosquitos, snakes and rats.

Henry Politano fights with them in his backyard on a daily basis. However, he said they’re not coming from his yard, they’re coming from his neighbor.

For six years, Politano and his wife have fought the incursion of their neighbor’s yard. The weeds in Michael Larioza’s back yard grow to the pitch of his roof, providing ample feeding for vermin and parasites. However, Larioza has kept his front lawn manicured.

“It’s a health issue. It’s a nuisance too,” Politano said. “I’ve known this guy for 25 years he’s lived there, he’s a nice young man. After his father passed, he just hasn’t taken care of the property. Every year it just seems to be getting worse and worse. He used to cut it once or twice a year, but I don’t think he’s cut it since last August.”

The Town of Orange Park attempted to give Larioza a 10-day notice to appear before a special magistrate several times, but Larioza never answered his door. Instead, they placed a notice in his front yard and posted it in town hall, a statutory requirement.

Larioza must appear before the special magistrate on July 28. If he fails to comply, the town can then clean his backyard themselves and send him a bill or charge him a fine.

“Typically the fine gets stiffer the more egregious the violation or the more experience we’ve had with one particular property owner,” said Sarah Campbell, town clerk. “So he can be fined up to $500 a day.”

Larioza is a repeat code offender with complaints from Politano dating back to 2013. Politano has dealt with the problem before then, but was reluctant to file more complaints against Larioza because he wanted to give Larioza more chances to right the wrongs himself.

The Town of Orange Park gave Larioza 30 days to clean his backyard overgrowth in November 2013. He complied with the order. In August of 2014, a judge ordered him to pay a $650 fine for the severe overgrowth of his backyard. For any further code violations, the town would fine Larioza $500.

“Typically they comply,” Campbell said. “We have a much smaller percentage that then have to come before the magistrate. That doesn’t even happen every month, that might happen 12 times a year. Of those, an even smaller of those become repeat offenders. I would say two or three of those cases become repeat offenders.”

Knocks to Larioza’s door were not answered by press time.

Politano sent out a letter to town officials in April detailing his past struggles with Larioza at his house on Leestan Court. He said although the initial response to the letter was quick, he was still frustrated about the three-month downtime between his letter and the magistrate hearing.

“The problem is that the whole process is too slow,” Politano said.

Nothing grows within a foot of the fence line on Politano’s side because of the bi-weekly weed sprays he has to pump out to keep Larioza’s yard from becoming his yard. Each spray costs Politano around $15, so the cost stacks up throughout the years.

Politano is half-retired and works three days a week as a real estate analyst for Fidelity Financial, so the sprays take a chunk out of his limited budget.

“It’s unfortunate,” Campbell said. “I think there are times most neighbors want to be good property owners and they want to comply. Sometimes you have health reasons. Sometimes the people are just being negligent, so the judge has to take all those things into consideration.”

The special magistrate will decide the actions to take on the case on July 28. Failure to comply could come attached with hefty fines and even a lien against his property. Politano just wants the weeds, the rats, the snakes and the mosquitos gone for good this time.

“I was good friends with his father,” Politano said. “His father kept the lawn well maintained. He’d probably be rolling over in his grave right now if he saw how it looks now.”