Public Transportation Director Scotty Taylor was getting it done Wednesday morning and scheduled to continue in the afternoon and through the week with the mowing of the roads in Jackson County. It has been a three-year battle for the Board of County Commissioners, terminating contract after contract when the work was not completed and/or not completed up to standards.
This past budget season, the commissioners put in place funds to bring the mowing in house and that will be taking effect within a couple of weeks if all goes well. Today, five of the eight tractor/mower operators have been hired and three are in place to be finalized as hired as early as next week. The dilemma right now are federal mandates coming down in response to budgeting and the COVID-19 (coronavirus) crisis.
The Board opted to go in-house after the last two contractors failed to complete the job and the roadways were described by many as deplorable. Taylor has worked with all departments trying to insure the new in-house mowing be a smooth process and roadways are mowed in a timely fashion. He has mapped out the entire county and has a schedule in place so that every district is treated equally and fairly when it comes to mowing.
A total of eight mowers with four starting on the east side of the county and four on the west side of the county will move and converge in the central portion of the county. Sheriff Lou Roberts said he has been kept abreast of the situation with the mowers. At the last county commission meeting, Roberts had requested his office be notified if where the mowers would be mowing. This gives his department a heads up of where the mowers would be parked, if any were left on the roadways. The officers can keep their eyes open to hopefully prevent any mysterious disappearances.
