Don Turner Jr. has another petition going. He wants to know, in detail, what our borough’s public works crew is doing every day.
Turner can’t believe our roads aren’t in better shape and he wants to do something about it. I suggest he put in for public works director next time that job opens and find out.
I can’t testify to what the public works crew does all day – under our form of government, the borough manager gets that information, I don’t – but my guess is that they work all day.
My experience after 18 months as mayor is that our staff works. There’s just not enough of them.
Here’s an example.
Around March a year ago, I suggested to then-manager Annette Kreitzer that a sign at Picture Point reading “Camping by Permission of the Manager Only” be moved out of the viewshed there and be posted instead on the side of the Point’s picnic shelter. I even offered to move it myself.
The sign was smack dab in the way of anyone wanting that iconic photo of Fort Seward with its stunning mountain backdrop.
At her request, I sent Kreitzer photos of the sign and some narrative.
The sign didn’t move, but I didn’t ride Kreitzer about it. As her office was next to mine, I knew she worked hard every day and a small, misplaced sign wasn’t near the top of her to-do list.
In late July, the sign disappeared completely. I asked around and learned the borough hadn’t touched it. Some person using the Point apparently had the same idea I had and pitched the sign in the bay.
That wasn’t my solution or a good solution, in my opinion, but the sign issue got resolved.
Moving misplaced signs aren’t the only improvements that go begging in our borough. There are prominent potholes and flaking paint on major buildings and several important issues – including childcare and affordable housing – that don’t get much or any staff time at all.
Because the staff are busy doing their own jobs.
On the issue of affordable housing, the borough even wrote a plan a few years ago, but there’s no one to administer it. There’s also a well-written plan for rebuilding downtown that’s collecting dust for the same reason. Soon perhaps we’ll have a daycare plan that sits on a shelf.
Former assistant to the manager Darsie Culbeck is on the issue of “why nothing ever gets done at the borough.” He has recommended the borough contract out housing and daycare to local professionals on a piecemeal basis.
A person tackling housing might be paid $50 an hour without benefits for six months or a year with a defined set of goals to accomplish. It’s a worthy idea, in my opinion, as our town is rich in former administrators of various stripes, including ones who’ve worked in local government but aren’t looking for a borough career.
Such an arrangement worked last fall to rid the town of a few hundred junked cars. Alekka Fullerton, who had resigned as borough clerk, was paid through a contract to handle the project. Fullerton didn’t work a miracle. She made phone calls and arrangements and signed up a local contractor to collect the cars and load a barge.
Contracting out special projects is worth a try and the assembly should pursue it. We could even hire a road contractor to fill in potholes.
Regardless of who gets the job done, we build faith in government when we get things done.