Chairman Elmer Thrift addressed with county commissioners complaints from residents concerning the mowing of right-of-ways in the county during a called meeting.
“I’ve had some complaints about some of them (right-of-ways ) not being mowed like it should be,” Thrift told his fellow commissioners during the Wednesday, August 27 meeting. “Is there anybody looking into that?”
County Manager James Shubert, who the question was directed at, said the areas being billed by invoices are verified before payment.
“I don’t know what the actual complaints are,” Shubert said. “The ones we talked about the other day around the culverts is where we actually need probably an excavator.”
The chairman said there are a lot of roads where the backside of the right-of-way is not being mowed.
Commissioner Barry Cox said he traveled a road Saturday for approximately four miles and perhaps four limbs had been picked up. I don’t know if they’re not reaching out to get them.”
Thrift said there is an area on Needham Road where rounding a curve is dangerous with vehicles needing to slow down.
“You can’t see for the bushes,” the chairman said. “There’s some roads like that in Manor and Dixie Union. There are some places where they haven’t mowed.”
Shubert said he would have invoices pulled and then check and see if the county has been billed.
“If we’ve been billed for work not done I’ll address it,” said the county manager. “If y’all (commissioners) want to terminate the agreement then we can terminate the agreement.”
Commissioner Timmy Lucas said if the county has been billed for work not done then the contractor needs to be charged with fraud.
“Make an example out of them, so the next company that comes in knows they can’t defraud the Ware County government,” Lucas said.
Shubert said he can’t ride all the roads with his daily workload at the office, “I have to depend on our public works director,” said Shubert. “If they’re not doing what he says he’s following up on then we’ve got an issue.”
Commissioner Leonard Burse asked Shubert if a list of roads are turned in prior to work being started.
“They sent him (public works director) an invoice of what they mowed, how many miles they mowed on what road, and which road they mowed on,” responded Shubert. “He then goes out and checks those roads to make sure they’ve done what they’re supposed to do.
“They (contractor) don’t let him know before which road they’re going to be doing. They just send the bill, as far as I know. They send me the invoice, he (public works) verifies the invoice, and then verifies they did what they said they did on those roads. Then the invoice gets sent up and we pay the bill.”
Commissioner John Tindall said it would be nice to know where they are mowing and who makes that decision.
Shubert informed the commission there are two contracts — one for mowing and one for trimming brush.
“We can look at termination language and just terminate,” said the county manager. “We’ll put our guys out there mowing.”
Shubert said there is a list of roads the contractor mows with a tractor and a rotary mower. He didn’t remember there’s a list of roads to cut with the side boom.
Shubert added the county has sent out for bids for two 75-80 horse power open air tractors with two seven-foot rotary mowers.
“We won’t have those back until September,” he said. “We can start doing more of the mowing.”
Thrift said clipping the edge of the roads to stop water from gathering is important.
“Maintenance is very important,” he said.
