At the urging of Grady County Commissioner June Knight, Grady County will be soliciting proposals for privatizing the mowing of county rights-of-way.
“I brought this up a couple of meetings ago about contracting out our mowing. I’ve talked to Stanley (Elkins, the county road superintendent) and he says we have 350 miles of roads that we have to maintain. He says a study had been done sometime back but not recently. It’s something I think we should look at. If they mow twice or three times a year, they are not using our equipment or our diesel,” Commissioner Knight said.
Road Superintendent Elkins said that his mowing crew works from “giddy up to whoa” and that weather and equipment problems are their biggest issues.
The county operates three mowers and a truck that follows behind the mowers. Grady County administrator J.C. (Buddy) Johnson III, said the crews have been working overtime on Friday in order to try and catch up with the mowing.
Johnson said if it was the consensus of the board to solicit proposals he would get with Elkins and issue a request for proposals and bring the estimates back to the board for its consideration.
The board was shy one member Tuesday night as Commissioner LaFaye Copeland was absent due to the passing of her husband. His obituary is published on Page A11 of this issue of The Messenger.
Please consider a private contractor for mowing county road ways. This county needs to spend some money on roads instead of using a majority or our resources on Tried Creek Lake. The lake is built and doing well. Its time to divert some attention to other things in the county. The lake doesn’t have to have an RV park right now.