Life As A Bureaucrat @ Wednesday April 18, 2007 08:47 am by WunderKraut
Note: I started this yesterday, but ran out of time…sorry for being so lazy.
Today is much like every other day for me, the bureaucrat.
I arrived at work to find I had two messages and three emails that were sent after I left work yesterday. I spent 10 minutes calling and responding to emails. By then it was time to attend the City Commission meeting.
I had two items on the agenda: an alley closing and a bid for a small sewer project. It took them 2 hours to get to my last item and shockingly enough, they approved the bid with very little comment.
After the meeting, my boss and I had a long conversation about a certain storm drainage project. I thought about explaining in detail what is going on with the project and why my head hurts, but really, do you care? Yeah, but it’s my blog, so suffer!
Anyway, it seems that elected officials do not like to fund infrastructure projects. After all, you can’t put your name on a new sewer line or show off that shiny new storm line that is 30 feet below the ground.
But the thing is, these systems were first built in the 1950’s. They are already over 50 years old and very little maintenance has been done on them. The only time anyone actually cares is when there is a failure or a blockage. Other than that, the Public Works Department is not given the funds they need to properly maintain the system. The Engineering Department writes reports and requests money to build projects that keep getting turned down.
Case in point is this project. My boss asked for $15 million in this latest Sales Tax. That was not enough to do the project, but he figured it was the most he could get. The Commission and City Manager cut it down to $10 million.
$10 million…sounds like a lot doesn’t it?
I just did a rough quantity take off and developed a cost estimate that came to $31 million.
$31 million…
A little math later I discovered that with the $10 million I already have, I can build the pipe from the river west for only 2,000 feet and it will be completely dry.
Not a drop of water in it.
A giant underground white elephant.
See, the point of the project is to separate combined storm/sewer flows so we do not have sewage discharges to the river. The problem is that the two lines that need to be separated are located another 4,000 feet to the west. If I can only build the first 2,000 feet, then nothing will flow in the pipe until the other 4,000 feet are constructed. You know, for another $20 million.
What to do?
That is my task. I am writing a report about what our options are. Personally, I think they need to bite the bullet and dedicate an entire Sales Tax (~$60 million) to fund the rest of this storm project and a few other sewer jobs around town.
Something tells me that will never happen.
You can’t see the pipes…they are not sexy…they do not directly increase the tax base…they do not directly impact economic development…they do not add cultural benefit or entertainment to the City..
They are just pipes.
6 Responses to “A Day In My Life”
Let me guess: when a major problems erupts, people are going to point their fingers at your department for not doing anything about it.
Am I right?
Yep. Either when the system caves in or EPD comes down with a hard mandate to separate the flows. The Public Works Director and the Engineering Director will be nailed to the wall.
This also applies to our mapping program. I need people to staff the crew, to use the equipment, to map our system. Yet all I get is stonewalling from other City Departments for approved positions and complaints from the Mayor that we are not mapping…..
*cough*
Just last month I read a book called The Ghost Map by Stephen Johnson. This book was about the worst colara outbreak in London and how it helped with modern sewage and medical advances. The pipes may not be sexy, they may not be seen but man are they needed. They are needed more than a new basketball stadium.
Par for freakin’ course with the kinds of decisions that come out of this city’s government. Give tax incentives to businesses? Why would ever do a thing like that? And here’s more coal for the fire.
I feel your pain. CSOs will be the albatross that drags down many a pretty politico’s face. Hell, here in Cleveland we still have wooden sections of the old sewers. Our sewer rates are due to climb by 60%-120% in the next ten years.
Still don’t make ‘em sexy or easy to sell…. Ninety-five percent of the electorate doesn’t know what cholera is or how to spell it….
Wow! Wooden sewers!
We have some 100 year old brick arches that I do not know how they are still standing.
If they only knew..