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This budget cuthelps out VDOT

June 9, 2009 12:35 am

By KELLY HANNON

Idling at the stoplight at Chatham Heights Road and State Route 3 in his Kia Rio, Mike Clowes reached a breaking point.

Day after day, he had watched the grass grow higher and higher from the driver's seat. Clowes estimated the thicket of grass was approaching 3 feet.

"It was just getting out of hand," Clowes said. "It was just way too tall."

Faced with this sight, most drivers would call VDOT or a county supervisor. Others would rage silently, fiddle with their car radio, and forget about it until the next time they stopped at the intersection.

Not Clowes. He set his alarm for 5:30 a.m. on the Saturday morning of Memorial Day weekend.

Not telling his wife, Dawn, where he was going, Clowes crept from bed, loaded his push lawnmower in the car and drove to the median.

He then proceeded to spend the next 6 hours mowing a publicly owned strip of land. For free. "I thought I could knock it out before my three-day weekend was ruined," Clowes said.

Clowes, 55, is not a landscaper. He works a 70-hour week as a wine wholesaler. He drives his Kia hatchback from his Ferry Farm home in Stafford County to the Springfield area every day, where he stops in restaurants and retail stores to talk about their wine needs. He leaves home at 4:30 a.m. and returns around 6:30 p.m.

But Clowes enjoys mowing his lawn. "It's the feeling of how nice it looks after it's done, like painting a room," Clowes said.

Mowing the Route 3 median was not as easy as Clowes assumed it would be.

He estimated the median was about 15 feet wide, "and it felt like 400 feet long." The high grass clogged his 3.5-horsepower lawnmower. Every few yards, he had to stop, bend over and yank out a clump of weeds. Also, the grass was wet at that hour, making it slippery.

"It was a whole lot harder than I thought," he said.

No one stopped to question what he was doing. One "kind lady" gave him a bottle of Gatorade, a hot dog and an apple, Clowes said. A man thanked him.

Clowes was inspired to cut the grass after hearing about state budget cuts that will scale back mowing on state roads. "I knew that it wasn't going to get done by anybody else, so I had a few hours to knock it out," he said.

Virginia Department of Transportation officials say the agency will still be mowing--just less often.

Last year, the median Clowes mowed was trimmed three times: In early spring, early summer and the fall. Now it will be mowed only twice--in June and in the fall, said VDOT spokeswoman Tina Bundy.

To save money, VDOT Commissioner David Ekern has proposed mowing interstate right-of-ways--the grass from the edge of the highway shoulder to the ditch line--only once a year. Interstate medians would be completely mowed only once every four years.

Ekern has made the recommendations to the Commonwealth Transportation Board, which has to vote on the proposal.

Medians on other primary roads in the Fredericksburg area will be mowed twice a year, Bundy said, and VDOT will mow whenever and wherever there is a safety hazard or blocked sight line.

As for the median Clowes cut, it was scheduled to be mowed sometime this month, Bundy said.

"He's a little bit ahead of us," Bundy said, "and then we'll cut it again sometime this fall."

VDOT discourages people from mowing medians. Bundy worries a civilian mower could be hit by passing traffic. "Anything could happen, even with our own mowers out there when they're in the middle of a roadway," Bundy said.

But Clowes thinks a volunteer band of mowers could be trained by VDOT, or don safety vests, and be sent out to hack away at the grass.

When contacted by The Free Lance-Star, Clowes was surprised at the interest. He thinks his deed is unremarkable, just a man who saw a project and took it on.

"Remember the movie 'Pay It Forward'? Just help out someone somewhere," Clowes said.

Kelly Hannon: 540/374-5436
Email: khannon@freelancestar.com