Mow the grass.

We don’t know how to say it any plainer than that, and we don’t know how to expect any less than that from the local Department of Transportation, whose workers are responsible for keeping tall grass around intersections and bridges trimmed.

And while we understand as well as any how budget constraints can impact an agency and how it operates, when it comes to the safety of motorists, money, or the lack thereof, should not hinder.

Unfortunately that has been the case in Sampson and Duplin counties, where many state-maintained lots have been left unattended, with rapidly growing grass overtaking many bridges and intersections across the county.

The blame lies with the budget, according to local DOT officials.

Losses in revenues left DOT coffers slimmer than expected and that equated to cutbacks in spending which, in turn, meant halting, or at the very least, delaying, many of the practices by local road crews, among them cutting the grass.

Because of the cutbacks, the DOT tapered its roadway grass cutting cycle from fix mowings to four; in Duplin it dropped to three. What that amounts to is the overgrown bridges and intersections that can be seen throughout Sampson County.

It’s both a mess and a safety hazard that should not have been allowed to happen, yet happen it has, so much so that it has drawn both the attention and the ire of county commissioners, as it should have.

It has also drawn our attention.

While local DOT interim engineer Lin Reynolds says a transition into a new budget year should take care of the growing problems, the truth is, state officials should have stopped this problem before our counties became knee-deep in them.

We don’t blame our local DOT crews who must work with what they are given. We blame state legislators and DOT officials in Raleigh who should have made it crystal clear that budget cuts should in no way impact safety.

Those are the people responsible for many of the budget woes the state is currently facing, and they are the people who should have set priorities in spending that would have ensured that mowing could take place as it was needed.

Instead, money was cut; grass was not. And what it has left is at least two counties with growing problems that should have never existed in the first place.

Reynolds has indicated the mowing program will be ramped up a notch or two in order to make up for problems that now exists. We’re glad the move is being made. The problem is, it should have never been allowed to get this way in the first place.

Now all that can be done is to mow the grass. And, all we can hope is that DOT officials in Raleigh will grow to understand that budget cuts should never hamper the public safety as it did with overgrown areas that were merely accidents waiting to happen.