Comments on: My tax dollars at make-work http://davidschrag.com/schrug/2009/05/01/my-tax-dollars-at-make-work/ David Schrag examines his navel and the world around it Sun, 22 Aug 2010 01:57:02 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: david http://davidschrag.com/schrug/2009/05/01/my-tax-dollars-at-make-work/comment-page-1/#comment-1058 david Thu, 07 May 2009 20:35:34 +0000 http://davidschrag.com/schrug/2009/05/01/my-tax-dollars-at-make-work/#comment-1058 Props to Councilor Ciommo's office. They got my input through their web site and one of their staff members (a) called me to acknowledge the issue; (b) called DPW to get their take on it; and (c) called me back with DPW's explanation. DPW says they always need two trucks for this job because if they don't have a second truck blocking traffic the guys filling the pothole are at risk of being run over. You know what? I'll give them that. It's not like they can carry the fill material on the front of the truck, and I can certainly see why the DPW crew wouldn't want to stand in the middle of the street without a buffer. I suppose in theory they could have a flagger jump out of the truck, but there's no question that a pickup truck provides more protection than a guy in a vest. As for the number of workers, DPW says sometimes they send out two guys and sometimes three, depending on the volume of work that day and the size of the holes to be filled. What I appreciated most was the admission on both DPW's and the Council staffer's part was that this procedure, when carried out on a small side street like mine, could look "silly." It's a good reminder to me that you rarely get the whole story by witnessing an isolated incident. Props to Councilor Ciommo’s office. They got my input through their web site and one of their staff members (a) called me to acknowledge the issue; (b) called DPW to get their take on it; and (c) called me back with DPW’s explanation.

DPW says they always need two trucks for this job because if they don’t have a second truck blocking traffic the guys filling the pothole are at risk of being run over. You know what? I’ll give them that. It’s not like they can carry the fill material on the front of the truck, and I can certainly see why the DPW crew wouldn’t want to stand in the middle of the street without a buffer. I suppose in theory they could have a flagger jump out of the truck, but there’s no question that a pickup truck provides more protection than a guy in a vest.

As for the number of workers, DPW says sometimes they send out two guys and sometimes three, depending on the volume of work that day and the size of the holes to be filled.

What I appreciated most was the admission on both DPW’s and the Council staffer’s part was that this procedure, when carried out on a small side street like mine, could look “silly.” It’s a good reminder to me that you rarely get the whole story by witnessing an isolated incident.

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