♪ ♪ How Many Times Must the Trucks Drive By??

I arose earlier than I normally do this morning so that I might shave, shower, etc, before heading downtown to the Board of Works meeting.

As I pulled out of my garage I noted again that my ever growing collection of yard waste was still present.

So just for giggles I took a quick tour of the neighborhoods to see how many others were still present and unacccounted for.

The images that follow are but a few that I took in the process. I did so in order that I might show them to our Street Department Superintendent at the aforementioned meeting.

I was also going to inquire of him the route schedule for the pickup of such in the four quadrants of the city as proposed/promised some months ago.

But alas he was not present as he was shepherding his crew through the process of repainting school crossings around the city. From what was said I came away with the impression that all hands were on such duty as per Mayor England.

I can't however, verify that to be the case as I'm running low on gas so I passed on the temptation to do so.

What I can say with certainty though is that many of the examples cited below have been brought to the street departments attention weeks hence and the remainder are in very plain sight! Assuming anyone has their eyes open that is!



The above is from our very own Spring cleaning /storm damage cleanup efforts. I alerted the proper entities of its existence at least two weeks ago.



This one in the 1900 Block of spring Street (Division Street) has survived at least three garbage day/recycling truck/various other city vehicle drive by's!




The two directly above are from the 700 Block of Market Street and are the remains of trees located on city rights of way which if I'm not mistaken makes them the cities responsiblity.

Oh, and note that obstructing the sidewalk appears not to be a safety concern after all.

Then this one on the 600 Block of Main Street was according to the owner phoned in and put on the to do list on March 6 of this year and the pile keeps growing!

Now to give the devil his due we all understand that the city is shorthanded, there have been a series of storms of late, we have budget woes, and on and on and on.

However, unless my ears deceived me Thursday last, the Mayor did say at the Common Council meeting that ours streets were clean.

Somehow I fear he has been misinformed as the items referenced above for the most part are not new though they may be growing.

So tell us Mr. Mayor, what else do we as citizens need to do?

We volunteer for weekend cleanups several times a year to rid our city of that which has accumulated only to watch it accumulate again. Thanks by the way Mickey for furnishing the dumpsters for such events!

We encourage our neighborhoods to police their own as much as possible.

We have offered on many occassions to haul our own to the dumpsters at the 4th Street location only to be turned away as we're informed that one can't put bagged yard waste in said dumpsters. And this after we've been told by the selfsame officials to bag it, leave it at curbside & it will be picked up!

We have followed the street department's grapple truck down many a road to watch it drive by pile after pile some of which it had to swing out & go around to keep from hitting them enroute to who knows where!

We have raked loose leaves to the curside as instructed only to see them either blow back into our yards or get washed down the storm water drains all the while being told WE the Public are responsible for said drains in close proximity to our property.

So PLEASE help us help you!!

Raise wages, raise taxes, raise rates, or fire 'em all and start over!

Park a dumpster on every street corner!

Petition the Council for more stringent legilation!

Request the Governor send in the National Guard complete with dump trucks to assist the Street Department!

Or like us buy a pair of gloves & blue jeans & jump in.

But quit with the same ole, same ole!

Storms past, economic disasters pending, and lack of property tax revenue aside I'm unaware of a city employee that has gone without a paycheck as of yet. Albeit some may not have been as big as they would have liked!

We just need to see some effort at getting our money's worth! And more often than once or twice a year via an insert in the councilmen's packet that never sees the light of day I might add!

So again how do we accomplish this feat? Outside the box ideas anyone?

By the way, isn't our thirty days about up??