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LEXINGTON, Ky. – Three maintenance workers have been fired from their jobs with the state Parks Department and their supervisor has resigned as a result of the agency’s new policy banning long hair on men, tattoos and body piercings.

The three were fired Wednesday from their jobs at General Burnside Island State Park near Somerset, less than 24 hours after Parks Commissioner George Ward sent an e-mail about the ban.

John Troxell, their supervisor, gave them short letters from park manager Libbie Furlong that fired them.

Troxell said Monday he was so upset about firing “three good workers” that he submitted his own resignation.

The new policy bans visible tattoos, body piercings, except for women’s ear lobes, and untucked shirts.

Furlong declined to comment Monday, but the Parks Department stood by its policy.

“We want our employees to present a professional appearance, and that’s why we have a policy,” Parks spokesman Jim Carroll said.

The workers – Bill Leslie, 61; Genell Roberts, 32; and Sandra Dale, 33 – served on a seasonal basis, from early March through late October, so they did not have the civil service protection of state merit employees.

The workers included two single mothers and a retired U.S. Navy veteran. They each made about $6.30 an hour to clean bathrooms, cut grass, trim trees and perform other menial labor.

“I don’t feel right sending single mothers and retirees home over something so foolish,” said Troxell, who had worked at the Parks Department for six years. “These people never have been appreciated properly, anyway. They do the nastiest, filthiest, dirtiest jobs you can imagine.”

They ran afoul of the appearance policy in various ways.

All had untucked shirts, by their own admission.

They said that tucking in their shirts made it easier for ticks to attach themselves, and it trapped wood chips and grass clippings. Roberts and Dale also said some male co-workers and park guests made sexist comments about their bodies when their shirts were tucked into their pants.

In addition, Leslie has tattoos on his calves and forearms, which he acquired during his Navy stint in the 1960s.

“The Navy didn’t complain about ’em. Why should the Parks Department?” Leslie asked.

And Dale said she has multiple ear piercings – five in one, four in the other.

Carroll, the Parks Department spokesman, said the workers knew about the appearance policy and chose to violate it, sealing their fates.

The workers disputed that account. In separate interviews, they said their first knowledge of Ward’s e-mail, sent last Tuesday to park managers statewide, came as they were fired Wednesday.

However, even if they had been warned about the appearance policy, they said they might have disagreed with it. They said the policy might make sense for workers who serve guests in the parks’ lodges, but not for those who toil outdoors in hot weather, wrestling with garbage and vegetation.

“The bosses in their air-conditioned offices, it’s easy for them to say, ‘Tuck your shirt in,'” Dale said. “They don’t know what our job involves. They don’t know how hot it gets out there.”

Ward, the Parks commissioner, was recruited from a private hotel management firm in February by Gov. Ernie Fletcher with a mission of rebuilding the state parks system so it turns a profit.

Aside from his appearance policy, Ward also has forbidden parks employees from speaking to reporters, and he has banned them from staying at their own park as paying guests during their off-duty hours.

Carroll said the first rule was enacted so reporters get accurate information from the Parks Department headquarters in Frankfort. The second rule was enacted for the comfort of park guests, he said.