You just know that there had to be more to this exchange:
On Tuesday night, tax board members questioned Alvord about his draft 2008-09 operating budget. The public works director requested $17.3 million, including $200,000 to hire an outside firm to clean plugged pipes and culverts. The city’s finance director, Thomas S. Hamilton, has recommended $16.4 million — a 3.3-percent increase over current spending — including $100,000 for the pipe and culvert cleaning.
…
Hamilton was not alone in questioning why Alvord is again seeking money for pipe cleaning.
“When are the (blocked) pipes going to cleaned? My memory is that they were going to be cleaned last summer. Are you going to combine the $250,000 from two years ago with $250,000 from this fiscal year?” asked Fred Wilms, tax board chairman. My question is ‘Was everything cleaned last summer?’”For each of the last two years, the tax board approved $250,000 to clear blocked pipes and drains.
Alvord, however, said bids received by the city exceeded the $500,000 available. The department rebid the project, excluding sediment disposal costs, and early last year received a favorable bid from McVac Environmental, according to Alvord.
Oh, where to start? Well let’s get back to that accountability. The DPW department reports to the public works committee of the common council. That is the committee that should be asking about why these bids, projects, vacuum trucks are like characters in an Ed Wood movie. Budget Zombies, never did, resurrecting year after year. The planning commission was certainly on top of this in the capital budget request, and then, Alvord claimed that the city uses “fantasy numbers” for budget purposes.
Tom Hamilton is not a fantasy number kinda guy. I bet he was a little more animated than the following report describes:
Hamilton doesn’t dispute that more work remains. He does questions whether dollars approved for the earlier projects have or ever will be spent for them.
“I would submit that if the problem of clogged drainage pipes on Olmstead Place was taken care of at some earlier time, it was not paid for out of either the FY 2006-07 or FY 2007-08 $250,000 appropriations, because those funds have not be spent yet,” wrote Hamilton in a response to an Olmstead Place resident and copied to Alvord and Mayor Richard A. Moccia.
And then we have this detail:
On the question of encumbered funding, Alvord described McVac as a “very responsible contractor” but “an abysmal invoicer” in getting its bills to the city in a timely fashion.
Alvord said cleaning blocked culverts and drainage pipes also requires equipment — one of two new vacuum trucks ordered for such purposes has arrived — and trained personnel to use that equipment.
Bardon said the new trucks can’t clear the largest blockages in Norwalk. One of the Boutan Street culverts, for instance, requires larger equipment, such as used by McVac, and will require annual cleaning. Lastly, the city will be stuck with cleaning culverts under the Metro-North Railroad tracks, according to Alvord.
“We learned painfully that (Department of Transportation) has no intention of ever cleaning those culverts,” Alvord said. “If we’re going to protect the residents of the city from flooding … we’re just going to have to accept that we’re going to have to do the work ourselves.”
Asked how much he will ask for pipe and culvert cleaning in future operating budgets, Alvord estimated $50,000 for the culverts on Boutan and Fitch streets alone.
“At least for those two, we should have some small amount of money in each operating budget to clear those culverts,” Alvord said Wednesday. “I’m thinking less than $50,000. Now that’s just a guess.”
This ground was covered in many meetings since March 21, 2007:
Tom Hamilton: Storm drainainge 02-03 capital allocation still available.
Mayor: Is that committed to a specific project or is it available?
Wilms: $279k still available, can youproviode a list of storm drains you plan to clear? And for the next year as well?
Alvord: Yes, but Tigh and Bond ecumberance money won’t be available. (5258 object code)
Wilms: 9 moths completed and you are spending the $350k in the last 3 months. Are you going to wait like you did this time?
Alvord: Assuming a good bid, they can do a change order on the exitsing contract, with council approval, can be done in a month.
Wilms: Trucks on order; 1 or 2?
Alvord: Just took delivery on one truck last week.
Wims: What will trucks be doing?
Alvord: The pipe clearing contract is to clear blockages from pipes. That’s equipment that the city doesn’t have, and won’t have. The vacuum trucks will provide us with the capability to clean catch basins and man holes and space between catch basins and man holes. Routine sedimentation that you have year to year. City will have the ability to maintain the system once the blockages and collapes are fixed. Contractors are not cleaning out catch basins. City needs 4 trucks, 3 are 15 years old. At any given time they one is broken. You run out of places to weld, debris tank is the issue, high wear here. In September other truck coming in.
Mayor: So if they are that bad, why not ask for 4
Alvord: We have one, one is coming so we need 2.
So, the big question for me at least, is why this stuff is back again, one year later? Is the public works committee just interested in rubber stamping budget requests, or do they have any intention of actually committing to some form of oversight?
As for Alvord. He’s a quintessential civil engineer. Listening to him explain why you can’t do something is like watching an episode of M*A*S*H*, or any army centric movie. Afterall, we all know where SNAFU came from.
source: The Hour, Alvord seeks $200,000 for plugged drainage pipes by Robert Koch, March 20, 2008
