Better Roads Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/85911
HighwayContractorHighwayContractor Growing Pains What happens when budge shortfalls cut back vegetation management? O nce again the weeds will be growing . . . quickly . . . in Rapid City this summer. But now it'll be up to the commercial and industrial landowners in the western South Dakota city to pick up the tab for keeping the right-of-ways mowed and tidy along the roads that pass their properties. Science is potentially part of the vegetation management solution for cash-strapped agencies (and perhaps even the Rapid City landowners) but will it be enough to keep some in the game? Rapid City made the news nationally in January, when the city council honored the request of the budget-restrained parks department to no longer maintain the sides of approximately 25 miles of "rural" roads inside city limits. The council didn't enact any new legislation, but rather re-emphasized an existing city ordinance that has otherwise been enforced for residential landowners. As agencies responsible for roads at the state, county and city level from coast to coast readily attest, money is tight. The ability for them to do what has come to be expected by their constituents is increasingly difficult every year. Roadside vegetation manage- ment may be one area where agencies see some – relatively – painless savings. Where Rapid City's parks department goes hands off, the work will in most cases fall to independent contractors hired by the commercial and industrial landowners. One of the mysteries in town, Rapid City Journal reporter Emilie Rusch told Better Roads, is why the parks department was even maintaining these "rural" right-of-ways anyway. Nobody, she notes, drops by to cut the grass in front of her house. Local history "Well, Parks and Recreation in Rapid City was just formed about eight years ago," explains Jerry Cole, Parks and Recreation director. "It was part of Public Works pre- vious to that, and Public Works back at that time would have Parks mow the right-of-ways in areas 8 March 2012 Better Roads By Mike Anderson Photo courtesy of DuPont