2024 Sinkhole #43 (Approximately)! OR Sinkholes? What Sinkholes?

Soon enough, the entire street surface of the 400 block of Union will be off limits to traffic (or very limited) so that Colarussso is able to dig it up to replace a Civil War era stone sewer that has been flooding basements for at least the past few years and, until a year or two ago, DPW Superintendent Robert Perry had no idea existed.  Also, about two-thirds of Cherry Alley west of 5th Street looks as though it will  be completely torn up to get at whatever ancient, failing infrastructure is below that our $117,000 superintendent was somehow unaware of until recently. Go figure!

While DPW will have no hand in that grand project forced on Robert Perry by the State DEC, a problem recently reared its ugly head on Union that DPW will have to deal with very soon.  Yes, it's another sinkhole.  Yes, yet another sinkhole near a storm drain (about 8 feet away this time), and under a DPW patched area from who-knows-when.  There was a problem there at one point that DPW dealt with and now it is much more serious or just as serious.  Look at all the space within the white rectangle that will have to be excavated and worked in.

If it's true that repeated sinkholes are like the proverbial canary in the coalmine, which I think they are, we are really in for some trouble.  I think we ain't seen nothin' yet.  It's a clear sign: our aged infrastructure is not handling all the water that Mother Nature is sending our way, down our sewer drains and between all the cracks and holes in our old, battered streets.

Yes, that car is readying to turn onto Union

DPW Superintendent Robert Perry ended his 16-minute DPW report to the Common Council on Monday night with a 12-picture, 3 1/2- minute show and tell of what Colarusso had been up to last month at the Ferry Street Bridge construction site. He began, "Back to the bridge.  We have more construction related stuff..."  "WE" who?  DPW has nothing to do with that bridge.  The construction contract was awarded to our pals at Colarusso and no DPW workers are near the bridge site.  EVER.  Except, of course, for Mr. Perry and his camera. 
At no point during Mr. Perry's 16-minute report did he mention anything about the two or three sinkholes that his DPW crew worked on last month.  He didn't even show one picture of a sinkhole, let alone one being worked on or completed.  But he made sure to tell us what Colarusso had been up to, as well as the work that the construction contractor Luizzi had been doing on the 2nd Street stairs and leaving messes on lower Warren Street. What are Mr. Perry's priorities? DPW issues, or projects that do not concern his employees?

Here are two DPW sinkhole projects from last month that HUDseen documented extensively, neither of which Mr. Perry bothered to inform the Common Council about on Monday night.  Did he forget to? Or did he "forget" to?

During Perry's 16 1/2-minute July DPW report, he also mentioned nothing about any sinkholes in the city.  HUDseen, on the other hand, has reported on 4 or 5 of them in the past few months.  Perry did, however, spend 3 minutes talking about what Colarusso was doing at the bridge site, as well as just less than a minute about what Luizzi was preparing to do for the DRI project that DPW has nothing to do with and is not at all involved with physically.  

The first question for Mr. Perry following that report was from member Rich Volo.  He thanked Perry for the work DPW had done on the new trees along Harry Howard Avenue.  A few minutes later, another member asked Perry "if DPW was going to plant more trees?  I noticed that the Charles Williams Park needs some."  

Opening is underneath the barrier in a 
DPW-patched area

Perry responded:  "First, it's important to clarify that DPW did not plant the trees on Harry Howard.  That was a grant from DEC that the Conservation  Advisory Council did.  All we do is we provide logistical support, technical and some follow-up work.  We are involved with the project, but that's a Rich Volo thing."  

Why the hell is Rich Volo, the head of the CAC, using council time to thank the DPW Superintendent for a tiny bit of help his department offered for a CAC project (aka, "a Rich Volo thing") and at the same time confusing other members about who plants trees in the city?  How is it possible that a council member doesn't even know that the Charles William Park redo will have nothing to do with DPW?

What a stinkin' sinkhole shitshow!  Not one council member in the past two months has asked Robert Perry why there have been so many sinkholes popping up around town lately.  It's like there haven't been any sinkholes for DPW to respond to and spend time and money on.  

A whole lot of nothing below the new
sinkhole opening at East Court & 4th.

During July's DPW report, Mr. Perry showed a picture of a new "power sweeper" at work in the Cedar Park Cemetery.  

Why does Perry think anyone cares about
this stupid fucking power sweeper?

What sinkholes?