Good morning citizens of the Miss-Lou.

This is concerning the picture that was published in The Natchez Democrat on July 14 titled, “Please Fix-Weedy Situation.”

That picture was so uncalled for.

First, to the person posting the picture, did you call Natchez Public Works to ask them about this? Probably not.

Second, have you ever been to public works to even see how many mowers and weed-eaters they have to work with to keep your town clean? Probably not.

Third, have you been to public works to see how many employees they have that “try” to keep “your” city looking nice? Probably not.

Fourth, do you mow and weed-eat your lawn when it’s raining or storming? Probably not.

Guess what, they don’t either.

Let me inform you of this.

Public works has five mowers, four running at all times, and one for back-up, weather permitting. Now for our weed-eaters, they have eight. These are running daily unless broken and also when weather permitting.

Now for your mowing crews, they have two. One goes on his route with a weed-eater crew following and other goes on their route with the other weed-eater crew following.

Not only do they mow, these crews have to pick up limbs, trees and debris that fall from the storms the day before.

So guess what, they are now behind on their route. For the other crew, if your street needs to be patched, they are now in charge of that. So guess what, no mowing on this day, so now both crews are behind. Now it’s back to square one, and what was mowed last week needs it again. What about those days they didn’t get to mow? Did the grass stop growing? No. It’s never ending, but they bust their tails to please people like you and are not appreciated.

Now for your weed-eating crew, they have two. My husband and another employee work with inmates to weed-eat this town of yours, saving this city thousands of dollars, if they had to someone to do the work.

Now remember, if we get rain or a storm, no weed-eating either. Some days they have four each and some days one or two, it just depends.

You have another crew that picks up trash and empties trashcans. Maybe on the days they’re not doing this, they could weed-eat? Just an idea I had.

If these men get pulled off their normal route to go do other “city” jobs that this city needs, they get behind. This would be setting up barricades and taken them down for parades, festivities downtown that need blocking off, such as the Fourth of July that just happened, or a special event happening in town that needs “special” attention.

Now my husband is the welder for public works, along with supervising a weed-eating crew. If something breaks or needs to be welded like it has done in the past two weeks, he is off weed-eating, now welding and getting behind. Yes, he has his crew, no he doesn’t have to get out there and work behind a weed-eater, but he does. Is it appreciated? No. He doesn’t just sit in his truck with air conditioning running, watching his crew work. He gets right out there with them on most days.

My advice to you is go to public works one morning at 7 a.m. and follow a crew that works around for just one day. The whole eight hours. Stand outside your car in the sun, not in it with the air conditioning running, and watch them work. Then maybe you will think twice before posting a picture in the paper and appreciate what these men do five days a week, eight hours a day.

So before you go posting picture of grass for “our” tourist and vacationers to see in the paper, go to the city officials, aldermen and women in this town and ask them to give good raises to hire more employees and buy more equipment for these men to use.

Yes, the mayor did give these folks a raise a couple years ago, but Uncle Sam came and got most of that when he raised taxes.

So, please before you go posting a picture, think about the weather, an event or has a road needed patching. Make a phone call, it can’t hurt, or if you think you can do it better, you can volunteer anytime, I’m sure they would appreciate it.

Now that I have vented, I hope you all will speak to a city official, and let’s get these raises happening. I hope you all have a very pleasant and blessed day.

 

Peggy Ainsworth is a proud wife of a public works employee.