Blue Stripes in the Median
Some leadership ideas for getting the grass mowed.
Mowing Those Shaggy Cobb Medians
This portion of the Roswell Road median near East Cobb Park looks a bit unkempt, but just up the road near the Robinson Road intersection the grass has been freshly mowed.
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Photos
I might have been a little too hard on Cobb Commission Chairman Tim Lee in the past. Granted, the deal with the libraries and the budget was a non-starter for our new Chairman. And, the nonsense with Thea Powell's nixed appointment to the Cobb Citizen Oversight Committee further stained his leadership credibility.
But no more than a week after the Chairman's call for citizen volunteers to mow county right-of-ways, I noticed some yard work in our own East Cobb. Even though traffic on Roswell Road was narrowed to one lane for almost a mile from the Mitsy Forest subdivision to East Side Elementary School, the grass in the median WAS being mowed.
Not only that, but there were even trusties from the county jail helping with the process! I haven't seen something like that in a long long time. I don't know who to thank first, County Manager David Hankerson or Sheriff Neil Warren. Regardless, it was great seeing the work being done and NOT by citizen volunteers OR private contractors.
I'm still concerned that the folks at the commission may not have gotten the memo about the budget. Surely, there are many county employees (heck, maybe hundreds) still on the payroll being under-utilized. If there's a reluctance to lay people off, why not simply transfer some to the DOT and let them mow grass and do other jobs that may not quite be in their job description. There are lots of folks in "real life" working in jobs well below their pay grade just to provide for their families and maintain benefits like healthcare.
Now this is just my opinion, but I think it would be in the Chairman's interest to make sure those things that are most visible to the voting public be done on a regular basis, that those things that are essential be done as efficiently, effectively and quietly as possible and those things that matter least be eliminated as quickly and as conspicuously as it can. Leadership is making sure those things that must be done be done no matter how distasteful.
That's why the people chose Mr. Lee to the Chair the commission. If ANYONE not on the county payroll is to be asked to don the orange vest and volunteer to mow the medians, it should be the Chairman and the rest of our commissioners. Oh, I guess it would be allright for them to get the help of county inmates.
What do you think of Tim Lee's call for citizen volunteers to help mow grassy medians and rights-of-way in Cobb County?
Tell us in the comments.
Margaret Thomson
1:45 pm on Sunday, June 5, 2011
Our commissioners are all political cowards. If the county can't afford regular maintenance, it has no business continuing to build things (new senior center, when they just closed 2 senior centers). Roads, fire and police should have priority, not new buildings, I don't care where the money comes from (it's ALL taxpayer money, after all). They say, It's grant money, or it's Federal money, like it doesn't come from We the People on some level. They need to get real and increase taxes if that's what needs to be done to keep the county moving forward. Some of the commissioners' priorities are mind-boggling.