It is unsettling when large contractors hire ex cons or felons to do manual labor, however, even though I'm aware that can happen and does happen...........
Our experience here has been that each time we had a major landscaping project, in our town in Vermont, our carpenters and/or plumbers (often both) would work along with our local landscapers, those who did our lawn maintenance and their "friends"....who all were nice decent home grown boys that we just happened to know (as well as their entire families) since they were born.......went to our church, went to our kids' schools, etc..........so we never had to fear any type of criminal activity from them.
The kids that are not college bound end up at the Career Developement Center part of our town's high school.........Horticulture just seems to be a popular course.
Thus, they all end up as landscapers.
When our original guy got old, we hired the little boy (now recently married and a dad) who used to build a tree house next door to our other home in town. I held him in my arms as a baby. Entire family is the salt of the earth, going back to the grandparents and great grandparents.
Ditto for our plumbers..........our original plumber's sons are now doing the work and they also have backhoes......when we need it..........and friends in the landscaping business when we need to "move earth" up on the hill........or "dig".......they all went through horticulture school and we know all their families.......for at least 40 + years.
I can honestly say that not all landscapers hire felons.....at least from our experience.
O.K. so one might say, "Well, Vermont is not Florida"......which is true.
However, our nephew, now 29.......in northern New Jersey....a wonderful boy from a wonderful family who wanted him to go to college........but he chose the Career Developement path as well and took Horticulture in high school......... has his own business. He has the same "crew" he began with ten years ago........they do seem to be sons of recent immigrants.......but they are loyal to him. He's spent the past decade building his business...........and learned to do pavers as well as cement work along with the lawn maintenance and also snow removal/plowing in winter.
For a "kid" labeled as A.D.H.D. at age nine...........he's done o.k. and is saving for his million dollar home at the Jersey shore.
The difference is that again, his clients live in his town and neighboring town, and know him, his parents, his sister and probably go to his church where he hangs his business informational bulletins and such.
I wish people would post here who they feel is the MOST RELIABLE and TRUSTWORTHY landscaping or lawn maintenance guys in The Villages. Maybe a poll and tally it up to see which business gets the most votes.......that would truly be helpful to "newbies".
Our town also has two major landscapers (who began young and are now senior citizens) with very large crews..........we've never heard of any problems with them. They also do "country stone walls" and "country ponds" and all the frills people moving up to Vermont want in their newly constructed homesites.....
They have all the "big boy toys" such as big vacuums for the leaves in the fall, big "blowers" to blow the seed mixed with the fertilizer onto the topsoil on new home lawns........state of the art landscaping , high tech type equipment. We also know them and their immediate families..........so, in a small town, one can feel pretty safe...............although times are changing all over, in many different ways, but that's another topic.
Ditto for the swimming pool installers and maintenance..........they are also all home grown boys......and that also stands for the carpenters in this town.
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