Little Axe Health Center Landscaping Update

As many of you know, the Little Axe Clinic opened to patient care on April 30 of this year. During the past couple of months since the clinic opened, we have had numerous compliments on the building but many complaints about the lawn.  Most of the complaints are about the tall grass and weeds. Right now, we are unable to do anything with the grass and weeds due to the contract we have with the company who placed the landscaping around the clinic. 

Our landscaping plans were included in the plans of the building and the City of Norman has a “Beautification Ordinance” requiring us to maintain the landscaping as it was planned that were submitted to the City before construction began. According to this ordinance, we have to maintain the landscaping as planned and follow the plans of the landscaping company. According to the care of the lawn, we cannot mow the lawn until the grass has a chance to take root. We also cannot do anything with the weeds, this is all part of the agreement with the company. The company has to “paint” a weed killer on the tall weeds around the building and wait about two weeks before they can come back to mow the grass at the same height all around. There are only two companies in this area that can take care of the Buffalo Grass that was planted and they have been very busy. The company came out to the clinic on Thursday, June 21 to paint the weed killer and will be back in two weeks to mow. 

This type of grass requires specific mowers or we risk the chance of pulling up the grass and ruining it. This is expensive grass. We are required to keep this grass and the landscaping for three years to be in compliance with the ordinance. We had to pay the City of Norman a bond for the landscaping costs and will be under this for three years. In these next three years, we have to maintain the landscaping to City standards or risk losing a substantial amount of money. If we could go back and change these plans, we would, but that is not an option at this time. We do realize that the landscaping is an eye-sore, but we are working to make the landscaping better looking. Once the mowing is complete, the lawns will look much better and it will be absolute beautiful facility inside and out. 

Thank you for your concerns and comments.  Always feel free to contact the two clinic administrators if you have any questions. Marla Throckmorton can be reached at 405.878.4702 in Shawnee and Beverly Felton can be reached in Little Axe at 405.701.7621.