Atherton Drive Landscaping

The photo above shows the condition of the landscaping on Atherton Drive just south of the Bass Pro Shop. Last week's Bulletin article about landscaping standards noted that this area hasn't been adequately maintained by the contractor and the City hasn't provided the proper oversight to make sure the contractor maintains the landscaping.

I promised when starting this blog that when the City makes mistakes, we would fess up. Now is the time to fess up. It would be easy to point fingers on this one--as no less than six different contractors have been operating in this area during the Atherton Road extension--but I'm not going to do that. At the end of the day, it is the City's responsibility to make sure that every public right of way in this community is in top condition at all times. I would encourage members of the public to inform the City anytime there is a problem in the public right of way. While in many areas, someone other than the City is responsible for the day to day maintenance, ultimately the buck stops here. If there is a problem, we will fix it, and worry about blame later. Finding someone else to blame doesn't fix the problem. It is more important that our citizens have an attractive and well-maintained community every day of the year.