D.O.T., Scrubbing Mile Marker Posts?

By TLS

The other day while driving I saw something I’ve never seen before. I saw Department of Transportation workers scrubbing mile marker posts, by hand. There were two vehicles and three employees, scrubbing posts on a country road.

Now, I’ve seen signs and posts and such cleaned before. Usually however it’s on major highways, freeways, and city roads. These areas are also usually extremely busy which creates lots of exhaust and road grime, so I get that.

This was a very rural country road which also sees plenty of rain. I’m all for maintenance and upkeep. But, shouldn’t we maybe use a little more common sense in utilizing resources?

This may have been ‘punishment’ or simply busy work, I have no idea. But again, theses were public resources, paid for by public taxes, doing at best marginally necessary work.

I don’t know what the answer here is but I do know resources are tight these days. I worked in government for many years and often heard the term “good steward of government resources.” I hated that term because it usually meant we weren’t getting something we needed or life was going to be a pain in the butt for a while.

This does not seem to be an example of good stewardship. Taxes are contentious to say the least. Government spending is typically anything but frugal as well.

I guess all I’m asking is ‘come on guys, let’s think about some of this stuff first. Ok?’

If you’ve seen odd uses of government resources in your town, share them. Stories like these aren’t just funny observations, they’re signals about how our money is spent. Let’s keep each other informed and hold our public institutions accountable.

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