The Griffin-Spalding Development Authority last week discussed the costs associated with cutting the grass at The Lakes at Green Valley industrial park.

The Development Authority will be paying $13,500 a month to get the slopes and rights of way mowed at the 570-acre The Lakes at Green Valley off Rehoboth Road and Arthur K. Bolton Parkway.

Spalding County is cutting the flat areas of land during its regular mowing across the county, said County Manager William Wilson Jr., and is only charging for the cost of fuel, about $300 each time.

Development Authority Executive Director David Luckie presented the contract to board members for approval at Thursday’s meeting, along with related budget amendments. The authority paid $19,900 for the first mowing, which came out of the fiscal year 2010-2011 budget. The rest of the contract, for 10 months at $13,500 a month, will be paid out of the fiscal year 2011-2012 budget.

Luckie said the cost was “realistic but not pretty.”

“It’s one heck of a mowing job,” he said, because of the 30- to 35-degree slopes.

Wilson said county work crews cut the large flat areas.

“We use it for practice and training,” he said.

The county was also paid to put up fencing around the new industrial park.

Luckie said, “We had some problems with people using the new roads as a race track and dumping trash out there.”

He said, “As we sell sites, it will be up to those folks to mow their own grass.”