Letters to the Editor: June 2000

To the Editor:
While GIE Publishers and ALA (what is today Lawn & Landscape) were getting underway in 1980, my husband was bootstrapping a one-man operation at Marco Island, Fla. What was a 1978 ElCamino, an open bed snowmobile trailer and a couple mowing tractors now is now a three-division company with 45 employees, a fleet of trucks and scores of mowers. It’s been a great 20 years, and over time we feel like we’ve "seen it all."

Of the many obstacles to be overcome by South Florida landscape maintenance providers, the labor shortage looms as the single greatest challenge to growth and prosperity for our company, and we believe this is true for everyone in our industry.

Lawmakers hold us to ever-higher safety standards, place noise abatement and pollution standards on equipment, ask us to restrict our use of water and fertilizer, increase taxes, and then withhold from us our single most important means of production – the immigrant laborers who are so willing, ready and able to help our national economy reach new levels of productivity. Surely lawmakers know that small business enterprise is absolutely essential to the health of our country’s economy. What can they be thinking?

The next 20 years? Working longer, faster, smarter, and harder is no longer the answer. We must take action outside of our own small venues. Our strength is in numbers!

Patrick and Lee Warner
Professional Lawn Services, Inc.
Naples, Fla.