they are tied to the construction industry and they don’t come in contact with anyone for the most part. Mulching and cutting lawn isn’t going to get anyone sick. The biggest problem is they carpool, that’s really the only time they are/need to be within 6 feet of someone.
Yesterday I received our neighborhood POA spring time notice to clean up one's house, landscaping, cut the grass,yard work and etc...
I have already power washed the house, prior to the temperatures getting into the 80's. Leave have been falling off our live oak the past few weeks, so the yard has been raked. I posted a notice to the community Facebook page state that the POA and the company overseeing our community have a bit of compassion and send out 2 or 3 notices, rather then one and start fining people. I have revert to Great Recession mode. If it does not generate income or is a key bill (electricity, cable, water) it is not essential to me. Overwhelmingly my neighbors agreed, but will the POA and IMC, see it that way.
We will still cut our grass and rake the leave. The grass might not be as green this year. Say-la-vee
I called my guy yesterday in SEPA because the grass is already growing
and he told me he is good to go because we don't interact in person.
He comes on a prescribed day each week during the growing season and cuts/trims the lawn and leaves.
Bill comes electronically.
Any other services like mulch, clean-up, etc. is done without interaction with me or the customer.
So it would seem like an easy way for him to stay in business and we get our lawn services.
He told me yesterday he has a ton of older folks on his route and if he didn't cut their lawns, it would grow out of control because they either can't cut their lawn or don't have lawnmowers.
While it’s aesthetic it’s also more or less a maintenance function and most municipalities have ordinances surrounding mowing. Commercial property owners may have no other means to care for things and in many residential situations they may be hired because of physical restrictions the owner has. Letting landscapes become overgrown can also bring pests and create an ideal environment for things like ticks.
Though I do think the decision is aided by the fact that the workers are outside and can space themselves and have no contact with the property owner. Though it sucks they didn’t consider equipment service shops hand in hand. I have almost 3 acres to care for and all my equipment including my ZTR were being serviced and now I have no way of getting them back until restrictions are lifted.
but why not keep some people collecting paychecks who have almost zero need for interpersonal contact/interaction to do their jobs.
They pose far less risk than all of the Karens who think it's fine to still meet up with their girlfriends for their daily group walk around the neighborhood.
Who is bothering them I am just asking if they are essential.
Their work is seasonal and timely. A lot of what they are doing now is stuff that needs to get done now, or the full season is shot.
You can argue whether people should be willing to forego the beauty of their yards for this year given the circumstances, but that does not appear to be a sacrifice anyone is volunteering to make. And it's hard to ask the landscaping companies to be the ones to give up their income when no one really knows what happens next.
and he told me he is good to go because we don't interact in person.
He comes on a prescribed day each week during the growing season and cuts/trims the lawn and leaves.
Bill comes electronically.
Any other services like mulch, clean-up, etc. is done without interaction with me or the customer.
So it would seem like an easy way for him to stay in business and we get our lawn services.
He told me yesterday he has a ton of older folks on his route and if he didn't cut their lawns, it would grow out of control because they either can't cut their lawn or don't have lawnmowers.
So essential.....to me Yes!
The question is really more whether the avoidance of an overgrown lawn is essential.
Clearly you feel as though keeping these landscapers out of their own homes and away from the safety of social distancing (remember, they may not interact directly with you, but they do share a truck and interact with each other) is a risk you're willing to take on their behalf in order to preserve the aesthetics of your neighborhood. They may pose no risk to get you sick. But having them out and interacting with each other daily links together multiple social distancing pods and does increase the reach of contagion for them and their families, to whatever degree.
Massachusetts list of essential businesses is linked.
Just for reference. I'm sure every state can define their own list.
No landscapers on here, but the closest I could find is the people who maintain state parks, etc. could be landscapers, but it doesn't sound like residential or even commercial.
Quote:
Public works -- workers who support the maintenance of dams, roads, bridges, water and sewer main breaks, plumbers, electricians, exterminators, inspectors, solid waste and hazardous waste removal workers, workers who support the operation and maintenance of state parks and forests, and more.
but they don't really come into contact with anyone, wo why add more people to the list of those unfortunately already losing their jobs for an extended period of time?
I have a landscape company that comes once a week and does all the essentials and I can count on one hand the number of times I have been within 6 feet of any of them in the last 5 years.
are complaining about the decision you made to live in those communities and or purchase a home.? Were there not other options available?
Who is complaining?
I cut my own grass and do all that myself but if I didn't I still don't see why a guy couldn't come out and do it for me, you know, when he's outside and i'm inside?
The only issue I see is carpooling and I'd hope the business owners take that seriously and provide an alternative (either send 2 trucks to 1 job or reimburse a worker to drive his vehicle to a job, meeting his partner there with the business truck).
There are enough people out of work, seems pretty ridiculous for landscapers to join that list.
Personally, I don't view it as essential, but i also don't view it as a risk to the community. People should be able to continue to support themselves if they can and not impose a risk on the population.
First they normally work solo so their opportunity to spread the virus is minimal
And second they are usually low paying jobs and without work they will definitely suffer more than the norm.
Big deal they make some noise but after they are done the propoerty looks better so leave them alone.
have been working all week, so I would guess they are considered essential. It is state-by-state though. I guess since they are outside, and don't need to work closely together, there isn't much risk.
and it's a difficult balance for them. On one hand, they - like anyone else - are definitely concerned with keeping cash flow as active as possible during this time.
On the other hand, they still do share the same fears and concerns as anyone else right now and while they do what they can to mitigate risk, there's no way to avoid the fact that being out in public all day, every day, is riskier than staying inside and practicing the most restrictive social distancing measures.
The conflicting element for them, from my vantage point and what they've expressed to me in conversation, is that as long as landscaping falls under the essential services label, they don't really have a choice. Many of their clients may simply move onto another landscaping company even if their reasons for scaling back their services are genuine and well-intentioned. So they feel obligated to continue providing services even if they might reasonably act otherwise as this situation continues to evolve, or take their chances that they'll have fewer clients to come back to when this is over. That puts them in a tough spot.
The good news is that they've been able to avoid layoffs and furloughs that are happening through many industries. And when they're on their job sites, they do sort of distance by role anyway - the edger isn't near the blower who isn't near the mower. The primary risk they face is in the truck - if one member of a crew gets COVID, chances are 2-3 families are getting it rather than just one.
I don't have a problem with them being allowed to continue working, but I think it's a bit silly that it falls under the category of "essential" unless there are environmentally sensitive sites or essential thoroughfares that they're servicing.
We are under contract on a big landscaping job (20k). The company has shut down for the time being. We almost certainly wouldn't be getting rolling for a few weeks anyway, but this company at least isn't operating.
there is no risk at all in being outside. The risk is the proximity and a good construction manager would be able to manage this. Solo work is absolutely the easiest solution and if that means 1 guy can only do 1 hours per day, so be it.
Duos also works taking separate vehicles. One guy is usually trimming grass and the other blowing debris - it may take a bit longer to keep 6+ ft from each other, but its easily done.
I don't see it being any more risky than going for a walk or run in your neighborhood. Its riskier to go foodshopping right now than it is to cut a lawn.
there is no risk at all in being outside. The risk is the proximity and a good construction manager would be able to manage this. Solo work is absolutely the easiest solution and if that means 1 guy can only do 1 hours per day, so be it.
Duos also works taking separate vehicles. One guy is usually trimming grass and the other blowing debris - it may take a bit longer to keep 6+ ft from each other, but its easily done.
I don't see it being any more risky than going for a walk or run in your neighborhood. Its riskier to go foodshopping right now than it is to cut a lawn.
No risk at all? I don't know if that's necessarily something you can say with certainty. Compared to being in your own home, where you can control what and who you interact with, being outside does allow other people to get closer to you without you having complete and total control.
I'm hardly saying they or anyone else should be a shut-in, but there's an inherent risk in being outside that is at least slightly greater than in your own home. Otherwise you wouldn't be seeing shelter-in-place recommendations.
Just the other day, Mrs. Dunk and I went to the local farmers market, and most of the people were really good about maintaining 6 feet of distance between themselves and others, but there were more than a handful of people who seemed completely oblivious and lacking awareness of what others were doing and would weave in and out of people like a slalom course as they picked through produce. It may not be a huge risk to be outside, but there's a risk.
As for the separate vehicles, if the company is operating at normal levels and haven't reduced their workforce, they may not have enough vehicles for each worker to ride separately. It's a good thought, but might not be practical.
All I'm saying is it's not really a slam dunk either way, but a less manicured lawn is not reason enough for an "essential" designation, IMO.
there is no risk at all in being outside. The risk is the proximity and a good construction manager would be able to manage this. Solo work is absolutely the easiest solution and if that means 1 guy can only do 1 hours per day, so be it.
I would agree there is less risk, but to say there is no risk is wrong. You can still come in contact with a COVID infection. While it is rarely airborne, that doesn't mean it is never airborne.
But if you practice social distancing and keep 6' away from others, you should be fine.
not even if you are in your house all day. At some point you are going to grab something to eat that came from a store in the last few weeks. And you have no idea who touched that. The virus can survive on surfaces for an extended period of time.
The goal is risk minimization. Landscaping seems to me to present less risk than running out to a store to get food to feed your family, which everyone will need to do at some point.
I agree. And I don't even care if its deemed essential, this falls into the common sense category to me.
People can cut their own grass anyway. This is more about keeping more people from being unemployed. There's also many landscaping contractors that do more than just cut grass (irrigation, masonry, etc) so I wouldn't completely rule them out of essential anyway. I'm on the commercial side of construction and many of these jobs need certain work done in a certain order to move onto the next portion of the job.
Then you get into commercial or residential landscaping and that can get messy.
I used to work from home and I forgot how much I hate the endless din of blower packs. Been home recently, obviously, and now I remember. I live in a fairly densely populated area and these guys are all around the neighborhood and blowing who the fuck knows what from morning to evening.
Get off of my lawn? NIMBY? I guess, yeah. I mean I use a blower, it’s electric. But it takes me about 10 minutes to blow my yard and yet each of my neighbors has like two or three guys or even four guys with the gas backpacks blow shit around for at least 30 minutes. Sometimes they go on for an hour. Every fucking week... just don’t see the need. Ever. Fuck hate ‘em.
With taller grasses comes a greater risk of ticks/bugs/mice which may carry health risks of their own. Dead matted grasses/leaves may bring mold spore risks in the fall.
And cosmetic decline can also contribute to poor mental hygiene, which is already being impacted by the shutdown.
Don't mean to imply any sort of serious risks/collapse of society, but it isn't as simple as 'what's the big deal?'
many of my business clients experienced a slow down. Surprisingly, to me anyway, my lawn care and landscape clients remained busy. Later I read an article that indicated that people were concerned with keeping up appearances. Wealthy who were hurt by that crises sold jewelry rather than artwork (which is more obvious) to make ends meet.
many of my business clients experienced a slow down. Surprisingly, to me anyway, my lawn care and landscape clients remained busy. Later I read an article that indicated that people were concerned with keeping up appearances. Wealthy who were hurt by that crises sold jewelry rather than artwork (which is more obvious) to make ends meet.
Makes sense to me. For just about every homeowner, their property is their greatest asset. Why anyone would neglect their greatest asset is a mystery to me. If you can’t do it yourself it probably makes sense to cut other things out first.
And yes from a health perspective, as another poster mentioned, neglected property can breed many things you don’t want in and around a home.
With taller grasses comes a greater risk of ticks/bugs/mice which may carry health risks of their own. Dead matted grasses/leaves may bring mold spore risks in the fall.
And cosmetic decline can also contribute to poor mental hygiene, which is already being impacted by the shutdown.
Don't mean to imply any sort of serious risks/collapse of society, but it isn't as simple as 'what's the big deal?'
Turns out this is why Nassau County listed lawn care as being essential. Ticks, etc.
Who is bothering them I am just asking if they are essential.
Yesterday I received our neighborhood POA spring time notice to clean up one's house, landscaping, cut the grass,yard work and etc...
I have already power washed the house, prior to the temperatures getting into the 80's. Leave have been falling off our live oak the past few weeks, so the yard has been raked. I posted a notice to the community Facebook page state that the POA and the company overseeing our community have a bit of compassion and send out 2 or 3 notices, rather then one and start fining people. I have revert to Great Recession mode. If it does not generate income or is a key bill (electricity, cable, water) it is not essential to me. Overwhelmingly my neighbors agreed, but will the POA and IMC, see it that way.
We will still cut our grass and rake the leave. The grass might not be as green this year. Say-la-vee
He comes on a prescribed day each week during the growing season and cuts/trims the lawn and leaves.
Bill comes electronically.
Any other services like mulch, clean-up, etc. is done without interaction with me or the customer.
So it would seem like an easy way for him to stay in business and we get our lawn services.
He told me yesterday he has a ton of older folks on his route and if he didn't cut their lawns, it would grow out of control because they either can't cut their lawn or don't have lawnmowers.
So essential.....to me Yes!
Though I do think the decision is aided by the fact that the workers are outside and can space themselves and have no contact with the property owner. Though it sucks they didn’t consider equipment service shops hand in hand. I have almost 3 acres to care for and all my equipment including my ZTR were being serviced and now I have no way of getting them back until restrictions are lifted.
They pose far less risk than all of the Karens who think it's fine to still meet up with their girlfriends for their daily group walk around the neighborhood.
Quote:
leave them alone
Who is bothering them I am just asking if they are essential.
Their work is seasonal and timely. A lot of what they are doing now is stuff that needs to get done now, or the full season is shot.
You can argue whether people should be willing to forego the beauty of their yards for this year given the circumstances, but that does not appear to be a sacrifice anyone is volunteering to make. And it's hard to ask the landscaping companies to be the ones to give up their income when no one really knows what happens next.
He comes on a prescribed day each week during the growing season and cuts/trims the lawn and leaves.
Bill comes electronically.
Any other services like mulch, clean-up, etc. is done without interaction with me or the customer.
So it would seem like an easy way for him to stay in business and we get our lawn services.
He told me yesterday he has a ton of older folks on his route and if he didn't cut their lawns, it would grow out of control because they either can't cut their lawn or don't have lawnmowers.
So essential.....to me Yes!
The question is really more whether the avoidance of an overgrown lawn is essential.
Clearly you feel as though keeping these landscapers out of their own homes and away from the safety of social distancing (remember, they may not interact directly with you, but they do share a truck and interact with each other) is a risk you're willing to take on their behalf in order to preserve the aesthetics of your neighborhood. They may pose no risk to get you sick. But having them out and interacting with each other daily links together multiple social distancing pods and does increase the reach of contagion for them and their families, to whatever degree.
Priorities.
Just for reference. I'm sure every state can define their own list.
No landscapers on here, but the closest I could find is the people who maintain state parks, etc. could be landscapers, but it doesn't sound like residential or even commercial.
But, they are pretty low risk.
Massachusetts Essential Businesses - ( New Window )
I have a landscape company that comes once a week and does all the essentials and I can count on one hand the number of times I have been within 6 feet of any of them in the last 5 years.
Who is complaining?
I cut my own grass and do all that myself but if I didn't I still don't see why a guy couldn't come out and do it for me, you know, when he's outside and i'm inside?
The only issue I see is carpooling and I'd hope the business owners take that seriously and provide an alternative (either send 2 trucks to 1 job or reimburse a worker to drive his vehicle to a job, meeting his partner there with the business truck).
There are enough people out of work, seems pretty ridiculous for landscapers to join that list.
And second they are usually low paying jobs and without work they will definitely suffer more than the norm.
Big deal they make some noise but after they are done the propoerty looks better so leave them alone.
On the other hand, they still do share the same fears and concerns as anyone else right now and while they do what they can to mitigate risk, there's no way to avoid the fact that being out in public all day, every day, is riskier than staying inside and practicing the most restrictive social distancing measures.
The conflicting element for them, from my vantage point and what they've expressed to me in conversation, is that as long as landscaping falls under the essential services label, they don't really have a choice. Many of their clients may simply move onto another landscaping company even if their reasons for scaling back their services are genuine and well-intentioned. So they feel obligated to continue providing services even if they might reasonably act otherwise as this situation continues to evolve, or take their chances that they'll have fewer clients to come back to when this is over. That puts them in a tough spot.
The good news is that they've been able to avoid layoffs and furloughs that are happening through many industries. And when they're on their job sites, they do sort of distance by role anyway - the edger isn't near the blower who isn't near the mower. The primary risk they face is in the truck - if one member of a crew gets COVID, chances are 2-3 families are getting it rather than just one.
I don't have a problem with them being allowed to continue working, but I think it's a bit silly that it falls under the category of "essential" unless there are environmentally sensitive sites or essential thoroughfares that they're servicing.
Duos also works taking separate vehicles. One guy is usually trimming grass and the other blowing debris - it may take a bit longer to keep 6+ ft from each other, but its easily done.
I don't see it being any more risky than going for a walk or run in your neighborhood. Its riskier to go foodshopping right now than it is to cut a lawn.
Duos also works taking separate vehicles. One guy is usually trimming grass and the other blowing debris - it may take a bit longer to keep 6+ ft from each other, but its easily done.
I don't see it being any more risky than going for a walk or run in your neighborhood. Its riskier to go foodshopping right now than it is to cut a lawn.
No risk at all? I don't know if that's necessarily something you can say with certainty. Compared to being in your own home, where you can control what and who you interact with, being outside does allow other people to get closer to you without you having complete and total control.
I'm hardly saying they or anyone else should be a shut-in, but there's an inherent risk in being outside that is at least slightly greater than in your own home. Otherwise you wouldn't be seeing shelter-in-place recommendations.
Just the other day, Mrs. Dunk and I went to the local farmers market, and most of the people were really good about maintaining 6 feet of distance between themselves and others, but there were more than a handful of people who seemed completely oblivious and lacking awareness of what others were doing and would weave in and out of people like a slalom course as they picked through produce. It may not be a huge risk to be outside, but there's a risk.
As for the separate vehicles, if the company is operating at normal levels and haven't reduced their workforce, they may not have enough vehicles for each worker to ride separately. It's a good thought, but might not be practical.
All I'm saying is it's not really a slam dunk either way, but a less manicured lawn is not reason enough for an "essential" designation, IMO.
I would agree there is less risk, but to say there is no risk is wrong. You can still come in contact with a COVID infection. While it is rarely airborne, that doesn't mean it is never airborne.
But if you practice social distancing and keep 6' away from others, you should be fine.
The goal is risk minimization. Landscaping seems to me to present less risk than running out to a store to get food to feed your family, which everyone will need to do at some point.
People can cut their own grass anyway. This is more about keeping more people from being unemployed. There's also many landscaping contractors that do more than just cut grass (irrigation, masonry, etc) so I wouldn't completely rule them out of essential anyway. I'm on the commercial side of construction and many of these jobs need certain work done in a certain order to move onto the next portion of the job.
Then you get into commercial or residential landscaping and that can get messy.
There will be an increased charge for the effort.....
Get off of my lawn? NIMBY? I guess, yeah. I mean I use a blower, it’s electric. But it takes me about 10 minutes to blow my yard and yet each of my neighbors has like two or three guys or even four guys with the gas backpacks blow shit around for at least 30 minutes. Sometimes they go on for an hour. Every fucking week... just don’t see the need. Ever. Fuck hate ‘em.
With taller grasses comes a greater risk of ticks/bugs/mice which may carry health risks of their own. Dead matted grasses/leaves may bring mold spore risks in the fall.
And cosmetic decline can also contribute to poor mental hygiene, which is already being impacted by the shutdown.
Don't mean to imply any sort of serious risks/collapse of society, but it isn't as simple as 'what's the big deal?'
Now the general level of intelligence you typically demonstrate in your posts makes much more sense.
Makes sense to me. For just about every homeowner, their property is their greatest asset. Why anyone would neglect their greatest asset is a mystery to me. If you can’t do it yourself it probably makes sense to cut other things out first.
And yes from a health perspective, as another poster mentioned, neglected property can breed many things you don’t want in and around a home.
With taller grasses comes a greater risk of ticks/bugs/mice which may carry health risks of their own. Dead matted grasses/leaves may bring mold spore risks in the fall.
And cosmetic decline can also contribute to poor mental hygiene, which is already being impacted by the shutdown.
Don't mean to imply any sort of serious risks/collapse of society, but it isn't as simple as 'what's the big deal?'
Turns out this is why Nassau County listed lawn care as being essential. Ticks, etc.