As you know…
We’ve had crazy weather the last couple months in our neck of the woods. We got hammered about two months ago and Public Works, along with CWLP, did a good job getting us back to "normal."
Well, oddly enough, late last week we got hammered again. Now there's more branches and downed limbs/trees needing cleaned up.
When it came up at city council last night, the next city wide pickup is set for October.
Here's roughly how that discussion went down (paraphrasing from here on out)... Alderman Brad Carlson of Ward 7 spoke up and pushed back, saying he could find 30 houses in his ward alone needing picked up right now. The head of Public Works Mr. Fuchs responded, essentially saying let me know who needs what and we'll get on it. Then the mayor jumped in, made her comments, and suggested taking care of both Carlson's ward and Alderman Williams' ward first, since the outage map showed both got hit hardest, then work outward from there.
That's when Alderman Williams spoke up and made some pretty comical remarks…
Essentially saying even though he's been highly critical of Public Works recently, he wanted to publicly thank them, because not only was he impressed with how they cleaned up after the most recent storm, he'd gotten praise from his constituents saying the same.
The look on Fuchs' face was... shock, honestly, and I thought that was hilarious. OH!, and then (if you remember the little "scuffle" Williams got into with the mayor a couple weeks back) Mayor Buscher spoke up and made a funny too, saying "I'll write down that you thanked me." which had me LOL.
There's more to it. If you want to hear it yourself, watch here.
The point?
If you're in either of those wards, get your branches out on the curb YESTERDAY…(It sounded like Alderman Carlson was going to be in his ward driving the next 3 days and would report to Fuchs on Monday.) That way when your alderman drives your neighborhood, they'll be able to see easily that you need pickup, which he can then report to Public Works. And you won't be stuck staring at a pile of branches for two more months.
That's it.
This is also a callback to my previous mention of our mayoral system, because you can see it in action in this example.
Haven't read that yet? Go read it here.
Then go watch a couple minutes (see link above) and you'll see the system at work.
Kinda cool, honestly.
Bye for now.
TL;DR (too long; didn’t read)
storms hit springfield again, more branches down
Next citywide pickup was set for october
Alderman Carlson called that out, 30+ houses in his ward alone
Public works said send the list, we'll handle it
Mayor stepped in, Carlson's and Williams' wards go first
Are you in those wards? curb your branches now
Makes your alderman's drive-by actually useful
See the mayor-council system in action, watch here
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