WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — Warner Robins leaders want to keep city streets as well-groomed as neighboring cities.
Folks at Keep Warner Robins Beautiful, Public Works and Code Enforcement want to create a policy to enhance the city's beauty and fight blight.
It's not all about beauty. Here is how it could specifically help the city's public works department.
Bobby Thomas, the superintendent of ground maintenance, says it takes the public works department 12 weeks to cut all of the rights of way along city roads.
"There's quite a bit that we cut that should be cut by the business owner or the homeowner," he says.
Currently, the city has no policy saying a property owner must cut their own right of way, and Thomas says it will save them hours of work, save their equipment, and lower fuel costs.
"Feagin Mill Road, for example, if we're cutting it standard, it's around 11.35 miles. By changing that, we would go down to, I'd say, 2.30 miles," he adds.
This total refers to the lane miles from Moody Road until Highway 41.
He says other areas include North Davis Drive, Lake Joy Road, and Green Street.
Thomas says most residential property owners take care of this independently, but this will make it official.
He adds that the department is currently short-staffed, which would help remove that burden.
With the extra time this would save, they could direct their attention to other projects. The department recently picked up park cleaning, working to bring them to code and bring additional safety.
"If a police officer rides through there, I would like to see him be able to shine his light from point a-z where he can see everything in the park without having to ride through there," says Thomas.
This ordinance still needs city council approval. It's expected to be brought up again at a future meeting.
The policy would require grass to be shorter than 10 inches and clean of weeds.
Folks who fail to meet this would get a warning and have five days to clean it up.After that, the city will cut it and bill the property owner.
Public works director Craig Clifton says this would not stop their team from coming out to collect trash along the road.