CAIRO — Grady County commissioners say the decision they made last week on roadside mowing will help keep roadside grasses under control without spending too much of taxpayers’ money.

Commissioners voted to fill a vacant position in the Road Department’s mowing unit and purchase a new tractor to help handle county mowing duties.

“To add equipment to our existing program — I think that’s the best way,” said Commissioner June Knight, who made the motion to expand the existing mowing unit.

The additional costs are expected to add an estimated $52,000 in expenses to the county’s roadside mowing efforts.

County Administrator Buddy Johnson said the additional expenses can be fit into next year’s budget, a situation helped by the fact that the county did not have to pay certain annual expenses this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“COVID was bad,” Johnson said, “but there are some things that were good out of COVID as far as the budget goes for this year.”

County officials will now seek to fill a position on the mowing unit that is expected to cost just shy of $30,000 a year. Officials also will seek to ink a three-year $62,000 lease on a new mower.

The decision the commissioners made will “keep the mowing and what would be necessary for us to continue to do what we’re doing” while also accounting for existing shortfalls and not eliminating any employees, Johnson said.

Commissioners were presented with four options: keep the same staff while adding a new employee and leasing additional equipment, keep the same staff while also spraying chemicals to slow the growth of roadside grasses, outsourcing roadside mowing entirely or relocate the mowing unit to a different department while outsourcing mowing duties.

The third option, outsourcing mowing duties entirely, was quickly ruled out.

“It’s never my intention to eliminate positions,” Knight said. “It’s just my intention to get the job done.”

Relocating the mowing unit while outsourcing the duties was also out of the question, with an estimated annual price tag of more than $120,000 above keeping it in-house.

That left the first two options, both of which kept the Road Department staff intact.

Spraying would cost the county $24,000 for each interval, or $72,000 to spray 100 miles of roadway three times a year.

“In other words, this could really add up if you wanted to do it twice a year or three times a year,” Johnson said.

While spraying may help stunt the growth of some of the grasses that have been the source of residents’ complaints, Johnson expressed skepticism that it would be enough to effectively combat fast-growing weeds considering the wet year the county has had.

With the cost of spraying expected to exceed the costs of adding a new employee and leasing a new vehicle by nearly $20,000, commissioners said the best option was to simply expand upon the existing mowing unit.

“No matter what you do, it’s going to cost more money,” said Road Department superintendent Stanley Elkins.

Knight’s motion to expand the existing mowing unit was seconded by Commissioner LaFaye Copeland and was carried unanimously.