Ludington DPW Report: One Day Earlier

[XLFD]

Earlier tonight at the May 6, 2013 Ludington City Council, the DPW gave out a report on all the variety of things that they do throughout the year, and need all the financial backing that the citizens give to their efforts in the form of taxes to continue to carry out in the best manner possible.  Our friends in the DPW do perform a fair share of work around the City, but I think they do have a bit of idle time on their hands (like yours truly), and don't really do enough. 

 

Consider that most lawn work, sidewalk/road repair, and maintenance projects are contracted out, that roadside stop and yield signs had been basically left hidden behind trees in many areas of our city for years, that they have spare weeks to put in a dog park at the north end of Rath Avenue, that they have all this spare time to set up and take down more and more fluffy downtown events, etc. and you may get the idea that they don't really have enough stuff to do around our city half of the time.  And it's not for the lack of manpower that what should be done, doesn't get done it seems. 

 

Appearances could be wrong, but the seasonal work the DPW does amounts to basically this list (many with help from contractors) and the two things they do in fall and winter, pick up leaves and plow snow:

 

Notice they have brush pick up twice, and even though they do not dredge and cut very little grass themselves, both are mentioned.  But for only a little over $350,000 a year for their wages (2011), I am sure they are worth it. 

 

But I am sure they can point out the day-to-day stuff they do around the town which further justifies their existence and efficiency.  After all, someone needs to go around emptying all those expensive garbage cans the city has installed around the various public areas.  And yet, I visited the Waterfront Marina Park this Sunday, May 5, and was frankly disappointed in what my out of town guest saw at the playground area.  The following pictures were taken of various trash cans in the playground area, all different, all stuffed to the point of overflowing. 

 

 

As you can see, there is a lot of garbage cans in that area, and almost all were full to the point of overflowing.  Granted, this was a nice spring weekend, and there may have been a lot of people that came to the park, but I seriously doubt whether these trash cans were all emptied on Friday, and seriously doubt that the mostly local users, three weekends before Memorial Day, filled these to capacity in a couple of days.

 

By the end of Monday, these had been tended to, whether by protocol, or by citizen complaints.  After all, DPW Director Shawn McDonald needed to give his annual DPW report that night.

[Willy]

The dredging may be in their budget and is hired out due to the special nature of the job, so even though City employees do not perform this service the DPW pays for it. Four of the jobs listed are seasonal and therefore need only to be done twice a year and those are the flag detail, picnic tables ect, playground equip reinstall and the sand fence. Minus those 4 and the dredging leaves only a few jobs that require attention by the DPW more than twice a year. I usually see only one worker emptying trash bins and one worker cleaning the beach on the sand smoother. Special events and maintaining Cartier walkway need sporadic attention, so that leaves brush pickup and grass cutting that need regular attention by employees and I think X mentioned that grass cutting was contracted out.

[XLFD]

In listening to DPW's Shawn McDonald presentation on Monday, it just seemed that there were plenty of gaps in their activities.  I have caught them working before, but it seems I usually just see them driving to and fro.  

Don't get me wrong, but I'm just trying to figure out how they justify all those employees working 40 hour weeks all the time, and the annual expenditures of over a million on motor pool expenses.  I am sure it's because of my well-known ignorance problems.