The town offers periodic (routine) curbside brush pickup. That's a very nice thing for us "townies," and we do appreciate it.

Most of the time, you come home in the evening and notice the pile is gone... and nothing more.

Today was a little different. I'm not sure what mechanism these crews use for grabbing the pile, but there's a heck of a scar in the yard this afternoon.



Looks like I have a little extra yard work to do this coming weekend.

The leaf vacuum on a truck?

Completely unrelated, did you buy me a Ruger No.1? I'll be there in two weeks to pick it up.

My neighbor across from me is going round and round with the city over the claw truck leaving a sizable divot from his front yard.

His rant was epic and was also bilingual…and he lost me in some of the Spanish but the tone and inflection really expressed what he wanted the city to know..

It’s been a week now…divot is still there.

I told him it might be easier to just get a bag of sand from lowes and be done with it.

Might I suggest the same thing Vthoky. You never win against city hall.

quote:

Originally posted by sigcrazy7:
The leaf vacuum on a truck?

Completely unrelated, did you buy me a Ruger No.1? I'll be there in two weeks to pick it up.

I'll suppose the leaf vacuum is quite a sucker! Pulled up soil and all! As for the No.1, I don't have it yet but can sometime next week. Let's take a look at it when you get to town.

quote:

Originally posted by MikeinNC:
His rant was epic and was also bilingual…and he lost me in some of the Spanish but the tone and inflection really expressed what he wanted the city to know..

Sounds like a fun read!

quote:

Originally posted by MikeinNC:
I told him it might be easier to just get a bag of sand from lowes and be done with it.

Might I suggest the same thing Vthoky. You never win against city hall.

I did send a polite email to Public Works a few minutes ago. We'll see how it goes, but I do have a bag of sand here in case it goes poorly.

Yeah, that would piss me off. The city knows this was their doing but shrugged it off, try that when it’s their turn in the barrel.

Our city cut part of our driveway to replace the water shutoff valve riser (or whatever it’s called) in the beginning of May. We were told two weeks for the concrete work. About every two weeks we call or go to the DPW, same answer “We’re working on a solution”

In all fairness they didn’t say which two weeks. I’m betting it’s next spring.

quote:

Originally posted by vthoky:

quote:

Originally posted by MikeinNC:
I told him it might be easier to just get a bag of sand from lowes and be done with it.

Might I suggest the same thing Vthoky. You never win against city hall.

I did send a polite email to Public Works a few minutes ago. We'll see how it goes, but I do have a bag of sand here in case it goes poorly.

When I bought my first house it was a builder’s spec home in a new neighborhood only 25% built out. It didn’t come with a lawn or landscaping.

I installed my own sprinkler system and then hired a contractor to hydroseed the lawn. About 3 months later it’s really looking good, and then the MFers from the water department came out and dig a 8x8x8 pothole in my front yard to access the water line. It’s also when I realized they had installed the waterline outside their easement. Due to being in oil & gas, I have above average knowledge on easements so it was game on.

City’s plan was to backfill (they hadn’t segregated my topsoil from the subsoil) and put some random low budget seed down. I assertively pointed out that wasn’t the condition it was found and if that’s their plan then I’ll have my attorney draft a demand letter to dig up their waterline, move it to the actual right of way, and reinstate both my topsoil and lawn as they found it.

A supervisor got back to me the next day with a revised plan of bringing out topsoil from the city’s leaf composting operation, and paying my hydroseeding contractor to spray in matching seed. I agreed and that became the best looking grass in the lawn due to the superior topsoil.

I suppose this is just "one of those days." I'm truly not looking for a fight at all, but two out of three business transactions today have gone funky. Coming home to a torn-up yard just wasn't on the List of Fun Things to Do today.

I was polite in my message to the public works people, but I'm not up for taking any sorry-butt answers from them either. Heck, they even find a way to screw up the grass when using their fancy-schmancy automated trash can picker-upper too. I'm okay with fixing my own screwups, but I get tired of fixing other people's screwups.

We were having problems like this with the pickup people screwing up people's yards, so the policy was changed and your pickup material must now be in the street and not on your property.

I'm almost okay with that, but sure as a bear's got hair, some nitwit would drive through it.

BTW, no response from Public Works yet. (Not holding my breath.)

Looks like post Katrina. You would not believe the size of these trucks with giant claws in the half block truck in the back. Had to go and buy fill dirt.

quote:

I was polite in my message to the public works people, but I'm not up for taking any sorry-butt answers from them either. Heck, they even find a way to screw up the grass when using their fancy-schmancy automated trash can picker-upper too. I'm okay with fixing my own screwups, but I get tired of fixing other people's screwups.

^^^^^^^^^^^^
Hire my neighbor. She is a feisty older lady from Wales. I do not know what she said but a resodding crew of seven came to repair the damage ALL under her watchful eye, barking commands.

A few years ago a neighbor a block or so over got tired, darn tired, of a pothole in his street.

Kept complaining but nothing happened.

Dude took a shovel out and planted a Crepe Myrtle in it.

And Watered it.

And fertilized it.

One day it was gone, replaced by a fresh sloppy uneven patch of asphalt.
.

ATT damaged a water line, likely a 3/4 inch sprinkler feed, took a week to get them back to fix what they and I watched them fubar.

Contractor wouldn't come back unless the city said it wasn't their line, got the city out, not their line, they and ATT called contractor who sent the "guy they send" for low end stuff.

He had to borrow tools and pipe repair parts from me to do the job, and.... it's still leaking, so another call to ATT to call the contractor to get someone out to fix a water leak that's been draining into the streets and flooded the yard around ATT's box for two weeks.

Think maybe someone should disconnect the fiber optic line every night so every customer in the loop will call them to bitch about no service until they come back over and over to get it fixed.

Fiber replacement Conduit post water line rupture, note the soaked ground



Tracks the Mini Tank equipment left when numb nuts didn't check the ground before rolling it on the yard.



Water continuing to soak the area, zoom in and you can see it pooling by the ATT Box



ATT connection box, full of water from leak

Have you tried calling your city council person. I had a similar situation and called my council member and it was taken care of. Plus, right now some of them are up for reelection.

nevermind

This message has been edited. Last edited by: bubbaturbo,

If they are like our township, they use a backhoe with a thumb attachment, that’s what it looks like they used to me, somebody forgot to boom up while they were dippering in lol. Probably a new guy and they decided to let him try it out in your yard

It's insane what grant money does to small towns.

Coal Valley il got money they "had" to spend .

So they tore out six curbs, and put in six handicap ramps ,
That go nowhere.

No sidewalks ,no parking lots, no homes to access , zip.