Originally Posted by SIRE1 (Post 1999728)

From what am hearing, the ability of being able to retain or hire workers is impacting most of the lawn and yard maintenance companies, just the same as it is for all of the other service companies. It seems like ALL companies are having a hell of a time of retaining employees, and an even harder time addressing absences due to Covid illnesses or quarantine requirements. I wouldn't be surprised if that is one of the reasons there has been a change in the performance of lawn care services lately. So finding a lawn service company that can handle both mowing and trimming may be really difficult. And you may want to be a little cautious about "firing" your current provider before you get a new one lined up. It seems like they are facing the same situation as the restaurants and other companies around the country are experiencing. Who knows, if this keeps up we may have to start mowing our own lawn.

I've also wondered whether the huge number of homes that have been added to The Villages may compound the problem. Since there are only so many people in the tri county area that provide these types of services and with The Villages continually growing, the demand for these services will stretch available manpower to the limit. Even though the population of Sumter county has grown considerably, that growth is primarily us Villagers. And we all want the same services. I suspect that the population of working age men and women in this same area hasn't grown in the same proportion as seniors, so the number of people to work in these service areas is stretched really thin. Look at all the new homes built or going to be built south of 44 and consider how many additional workers it is going to require in order to provide services (including lawn & yard work). I sometimes wonder if the growth of The Villages will eventually exceed what the surrounding communities can provide for store, restaurants, and yes, lawn maintenance employees. Just a thought.

Originally Posted by SIRE1 (Post 2008439)

Rather than that, maybe it's time for each of the CDD's to relax their rules for lawn coverage. Possibly allowing more rock usage, especially in the Patio & Courtyard Villa areas. That would reduce the number of yards that need to be mowed weekly so that the existing mowing services can handle those yards which have grass. That would also reduce the amount of water going for irrigation. Both of which would save the home owners money. Seems like win to me. And from what I've seen of the few "illegal" villa homes with rock instead of grass, they don't look bad at all.