It’s Not My Job! Well, It’s Not My Job! — Whose @#$%^%$ Job Is It?
by Chuck Ring
My wife, our dogs and I love to walk on the new town trails and appreciate the money and effort spent on them. We also appreciate the potential beauty of the added plants and other features found along the trails. That is, all the features with the exception of the weeds which are now going to seed. We did not just wake up this morning, never having said anything in the past, and decide to ratchet up the noise about the pollen wafting from their beautiful (not) little blooms. No, we both made our concerns known before the council on at least two occasions. We figured that if we tag-teamed our governing body more attention might be paid since we had one of each; that is, one female and one male. Wrong.
It seems that there is some controversy concerning just who is responsible for pulling or wrestling weeds from the right-of-way and the landscaped areas. It was the town’s contention, that the landscape contractor was responsible for maintenance (including weed abatement) of the right-of-way and landscape plantings. It was, according to a spokesperson, the New Mexico Department of Transportation’s (DOT) contention that the contractor was responsible for watering the plants and no more and the town was or is responsible for weed abatement.
Approximately two weeks ago, I spoke with the Edgewood Mayor and suggested that in the interim, while the issue was settled with fisticuffs or the toss of a coin, that the town contract with a local “weeder” to rid itself of the noxious plants. The mayor said that he would speak with Ms. Mahalick, our town planner, to see what the facts were concerning responsibility for destruction of the things.
I soon heard from Ms. Mahalick with a copy of an email that was sent from a representative of the DOT, wherein all responsibility for weed removal was placed squarely in the hands or weedeaters of the town. This after Ms. Mahalick had queried the representative as to whether the DOT intended to “turn the project over to the town in its then overcrowded state” (somewhat paraphrased by me).
What appeared next along State Road 344 was a white van, a guard and three individuals dressed in incarceration orange. The three orange dressed folk appeared to be prisoners of some sort as they were the only ones apparently tasked to rid the landscaped area of weeds. And, a weeding they did go. Over the ensuing three to four days they cleared approximately 3/4 of a mile and dressed the area up rather smartly … then, nothing. So rather than have State Road 344 neat and prim for our first ever parade, which was attended by our four council members, but not the mayor, we instead had strips of raggedy looking highway, if not actual ragweeds.
It is now going on five days since the parade. The DOT has not appeared, the white van and three orange individuals are absent, and no one has been contracted with by the town to finish the job of weed removal. At least, it seems to be apparent that no contract has been let. This is not rocket science, so the mayor does not have to fall back on his previous career of rocket scientist. All the mayor has to do is just do it. The money is available and he does not need to place a temporary arrangement before the council.
Before I forget, even if the town is responsible for the weeds in the landscaped areas, there are weeds in areas which are not landscaped, weeds which are covering drainage culverts and weeds that are intertwined in the right-of-way fences. Eventually, the weeds will block off the culverts and those on or in the fences will become a fire hazard.
We will have a bumper crop of the devils next year and the mortal man in the mayor’s office will be hearing from my wife and in all probability, myself. Maybe our town council needs to grab this issue and dispose of it. By the time a new employee is chosen (if one is chosen) the weeds will have deposited all of their seeds and the seeds will be safely ensconced among the gravel waiting for solar activity to pop them out of the earth next spring. I had taken a total of forty pictures to illustrate just how bad the weeds are, but anyone with one eye and half-sense can see for themselves with a drive up State Road 344.