The roads of Lincoln County don’t just clean themselves.

Every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, crews of citizens are theones that clean them in a program that leaders in the judicialsystem said saves the county money and manhours. At the same time,said Justice Court Judge Ralph Boone, it helps people withoutstanding fines handle the situation even if they don’t have thecash.

“Normally we’re doing that because they can’t afford to pay thefines off, so we let them go on the work crew to work the finesoff,” Boone said. “People right now don’t have a lot of money. Ifthey don’t pay the fine they’ll put a contempt warrant on them, andjail don’t help nobody.”

Crew foreman Terry Nations said crew members are just gratefulto be able to work off their fines since some of them don’t havejobs, and others don’t have regular jobs.

“On Monday and Friday they can look for a full-time job, and onTuesday, Wednesday and Thursday they can get their fines paid off,”Nations said.

In the program, which has been in place about a year, Boone saidcrew members earn minimum wage toward paying off their fines.

“They get that off their fines for every hour they work,” Boonesaid.

And with the program only being three days a week, Boone saidcrew members have the chance to look for work. And if they findemployment, they then have another means to pay off their fines andno longer to be on the work crew.

“They’re not held to it or bound to it,” Boone said.

The crew has had as many as 14 people on it, and currently hasabout seven.

Nations said no matter how many he has, they’re stillresponsible for litter pickup all over the county. There are alsorisks that come with it.

“We work all the districts,” he said. “People need to rememberto watch for us on the road, and if you see us, slow down. We’retrying to keep the county clean.”

Crew members, while some are a little sheepish about havingfines to pay off, said they have had some interesting experienceswhile cleaning the district.

Those includes some animal encounters. Crew members reportedseeing plenty of snakes and other wildlife, and most alarmingly, analligator.

“We’ve seen 30 or 40 snakes,” Nations said. “We kill the badones and let the good ones go. And we saw about a 6-foot alligatoron the creek.”

The crew also found and killed a very large rattlesnake that wasquite a cause of alarm for not only the crew, but in Nations’opinion, for everyone.

“I just think hunters should watch their step,” he said. “Thatsnake had 18 rattles and a button.”

Working on the trash crew can be a positive situation in severalways, Boone said.

“It’s a win-win situation when they’re paying the fines off andthe county is getting something for it instead of backing up on oldfines,” he said, adding that he and fellow Justice Court Judge AnneReeves have done their part to put the program in place in order tobenefit everyone. “We’re both trying to help the county. It’sreally a good thing. If you had to pay someone to do it, it wouldbe way too much, and we can’t afford the liability with the(state’s) inmates.”

Sheriff Steve Rushing agreed that it is a good situation not tohave to use the jail crews for the work.

“It takes the inmates off the roads and lets us use themelsewhere,” he said. “Plus it gives people a chance to work offtheir old fines. It’s good for everyone.”