Here’s my weekend story on the impact of the city’s drastic groundskeeping and roadside mowing cutbacks.
Bainbridge police are trained to weed out crime.
But weeding out weeds? Not so much.
The city has slashed funding for landscape maintenance, forcing police, groups of senior citizens and others to get their hands dirty as volunteer gardeners and landscapers.
Officers and police support staff spent much of Saturday planting new shrubs and replacing their station’s front yard with a lower-maintenance rock garden.
“We’re growing rocks now,” joked an officer as she walked past white stones where green grass had been last week.
Where volunteers aren’t picking up the slack, city officials say islanders can expect a shaggier look this summer on the generally well-groomed island.
“We have less hours and less people to do these activities,” city public works assistant director Lance Newkirk said. “Things may look different this year.”
The biggest difference may be seen along roadsides. In the past, the city crews mowed the sides of all paved public roadways during the summer. This year, the city will mow once and do a few spot mowings at intersections where grass and weeds block visibility.
