An epically bad curb-painting job in Laramie’s historic downtown district has locals saying they’re “embarrassed” for their town, and the city apologizing for not only botching the job, but also the first attempt to fix it.
A city worker was caught on camera wildly overspraying a curb with yellow paint, and in the process also hitting nearby bicycles, a sewer grate, and even permanent bike racks installed several feet from the curb.
“It’s shocking, really,” said Laramie resident Mary Monteith about the spectacularly horrendous paint job. “He sprayed the curb, the sewer grates, the weeds, the bike racks, I’m pretty sure a few cars.
“This guy caused more damage than the job itself was worth.”
Nathan Janzen is an oil field manager who said he’s “embarrassed” for the city he lives in, and that, “I want more for my community and from the city employees.”
He said that while it’s easy to poke fun at the image of a city worker doing such a terrible job, it’s not that funny when it means the city has to spend the same money three times to finally get the job right.
“I see that type of work ethic in young adults all the time,” Janzen said. “It used to drive me nuts, because I’ve always been professional and have a high level of job satisfaction to maintain.”
He called the yellow curb debacle a failure of not just a worker “who clearly doesn’t give a shit,” but also the city.
“What’s more concerning is that job everybody in the community can see,” Janzen said. “It makes you think what else is that employee doing where people can’t see? What’s happening behind closed doors?
“Ultimately, it falls on the employee, but that bad work quality trickles down from the top.”
Made It Look Worse
The city issued a public acknowledgement of the bad work and an apology Thursday morning.
“The city of Laramie would like to apologize for the curb spraying and subsequent corrective work downtown,” the city says in a statement. “This does not reflect the quality of work we expect from Public Works.”
The city goes on to also admit that its first attempt to fix the initial overspray also bombed.
“In our haste to correct the problem, we applied gray paint intended to match the underlying concrete, which is a common practice,” the statement says. “Unfortunately, this made the affected areas look worse.”
That’s when crews were sent out with pressure washers to blast away the gray paint and the yellow overspray the gray was hiding.
The employee who did the overspray had only been with the city for less than a week, was using the wrong equipment and hadn't been properly trained, said Owen Schildt, larmie city spokesperson.
"Basically, we had a streets crew out there to repaint the curb, and the employee who was doing it, it was their first time," he said. "The wrong equipment was used. We hadn't educated that staff member on how to properly do the task."
Schildt added that the snafu isn't a reflection on that worker, but on the city Public Works as a whole through "an oversight on the management part. We didn't train him properly."
The city also promises in its statement to “review our training, equipment-use procedures, and supervisory oversight to prevent this from happening again.”
A Laramie city road worker uses a pressure washer to fix an epically bad curb painting job, which then also created a horrible-looking fix trying to cover the yellow overspray with gray paint. (City of Laramie via Facebook) 
A Laramie city road worker uses a pressure washer to fix an epically bad curb painting job, which then also created a horrible-looking fix trying to cover the yellow overspray with gray paint. (City of Laramie via Facebook) 
A Laramie city road worker uses a pressure washer to fix an epically bad curb painting job, which then also created a horrible-looking fix trying to cover the yellow overspray with gray paint. (City of Laramie via Facebook)
‘I Love Our City’
Monteith said she appreciates the city owning up to the blunder, but that it didn’t have much of a choice.
“Those pictures really say it all, right?” she said. “I mean, the guy is right there doing it. The worker is literally standing there with the paint wand.
“At that point, they really didn’t have an option but to admit it and say, ‘We can eat the fact that we botched this.’”
Monteith also said her criticism of the curb paint job isn’t done to “be a Karen or anything.”
“I love our city. Our city is awesome,” she said. “Thank you for taking the steps and thank you for fixing it.”
For his part, Janzen also said he’s glad to see the city apology, but he takes it with a grain of salt.
“You’d want to trust that, but ultimately, it’s a government entity, right?” he said.
“Hopefully, this embarrassed someone enough to where their families or loved ones are giving them a lot of crap about doing that type of job,” Janzen added.
In the job sites he oversees, Janzen said he’s very clear about promoting a culture of accountability and not continuing to do something wrong.
“I tell my employees all the time, if you screw something up and we need to fix it, come out and say something and own up to it right away,” he said. “That clearly didn’t happen here. This is disappointing on multiple levels, right?
“The employee obviously doesn’t give a shit — whether he was having a bad day or that’s just his personality.”
Contact Greg Johnson at greg@cowboystatedaily.com
Greg Johnson can be reached at greg@cowboystatedaily.com.
