City officials have plan to mow bypass median
Every summer for the past several years, city officials have had a bone to pick with the state’s mowing contractors.
While the city takes great pains to maintain the city’s public property each summer, officials have openly complained about maintenance along the state right of ways along the Highway 70 Bypass and other state right of ways throughout the area.
But if changes they are seeking come to fruition and the bypass looks bad come June, city officials expect to have no one to blame but themselves.
Last week, they said instead of utilizing the state’s private contractor to mow and maintain grass and weeds along state right of ways, as has been the case over the past several years, the city wants the job.
The city has expressed their interest to the state, and officials are awaiting paperwork to complete the deal. If it goes through, the state would pay the city around $35,000 to mow the areas.
“They’ll pay us to mow it six times and it works out to around $35,000 a year,” City Administrator Herb Llewellyn said.
To do that, however, it will take about $60,000 in new equipment purchases, including a tractor and bat wing rotary mower, which would pay for themselves in a couple of years. The life expectancy of the equipment is about 10 years.
Officials believe the trade off is worth it and have instructed Llewellyn to follow through with completing a contract with the state. He estimated there are about 23 acres to be mowed in all, including a lot on North Chancery Street that has been an eyesore for years, although the majority of the grassy areas to be mowed are located along the bypass.
“The reason we’re doing this is because the board has wanted it to look a lot better, and what they have said is, ‘We are the Nursery Capital of the World and there are times when we have three and four-foot high grass and weeds along our roads,'” Llewellyn said.
“And that doesn’t appear to them to be what one would expect to see in the Nursery Capital of the World.'”
He anticipated if all goes through, the city could be mowing the state right of ways by the end of next month.