The $tinkers Continue To Pop Up. Or Is It Down?

 

5 weeks after HUDseen reported on a sinkhole that DPW was attending to in the middle of South Front Street at Cross Street (which took them at least 7 days to complete), yesterday there were signs of yet another break in the sewer below Front Street, just 125 feet up the hill along the new DRI curbstones.  

I'm thinking that the heavy downpour we had on Monday was the cause of DPW's attention to South Front.  INCREASED DELUGES THANKS TO CLIMATE CHANGE ARE GETTING VERY, VERY EXPENSIVE TO DEAL WITH, RESPOND TO AND TO RECOVER FROM! JUST ASK GOVERNOR PHIL MURPHY OF NEW JERSEY.

Perhaps the saddest thing of all might be that in the process of excavating Front Street to get at yet another sinkhole/sewer problem, DPW had to remove a portion of the brand new useless (and dangerous) bicycle sharrow that the DRI project gifted us on the street.  Such sorrow to not have that complete sharrow doing its worst to keep all of us cyclists safe, seen and respected!  

The paint just dried two weeks ago!

Thank goodness the curb hopper 
sharrow was left alone!  For now!

Any bets on how many years it takes to get that bicycle sharrow back in tip top condition and who will pay for it? Or will Rob Perry just say, "Fuck it, who needs it? Leave it as is to bother the hell out of Bicycle Bill!" (I've never seen Rob Perry on a bicycle, and I have only ever seen him ONCE IN TEN YEARS walking in downtown Hudson outside of work hours. Once!)

On July 1st, I noticed DPW dealing with a sinkhole at the eastern end of State Street, an area that has seen two episodes of major sewer work by contractors (not DPW).  The entire first block of State was closed to traffic for at least five days, including over a weekend.  Within a week or more, DPW had taken care of things and filled in their large excavation to allow traffic to resume.  Today, the gravel they covered the top with is still being run over by cars and trucks, with much of it pushed to the curb.  Apparently, DPW has not found the time to finish the job by repaving the site. 

During his DPW report to the council and the public at April's informal council meeting, Superintendent Rob Perry offered no shortage of details about the repair of the "sinkhole on Columbia Street" that appeared in late March.  He must have uttered the word "WE" 12 times in describing how that sewer repair was taken care of (it was a biggie, and HUDseen reported on it).  "We did this," "we filled this," "we used concrete," "we repaired this," and on and on with the WE's.  What Mr. Perry made plain to everyone was that DPW ("WE"), and DPW alone, did all the work on that repair.  But that was not at all the case.  What Mr. Perry could and should have divulged about that rather large sewer pipe repair job was the fact that a contractor had to be called in to help fill that huge excavation after DPW had fixed the busted pipe.  But Perry chose not to let anyone know about that assistance or expense.

The contractor that DPW hired to help was a local supplier of sand, stone and concrete by the name of Stickles & Sons, out of Livingston.  They delivered three loads of "K-CRETE" and plenty of other materials to the 400 block of Columbia on March 25th & 26th, referring to the job as "444 Columbia Sewer."  Stickles' assistance with material and delivery to fix one very old broken sewer pipe cost us exactly $3,407.51.  That total included 3 "fuel surcharges" of $30.00 each.

In addition to that $3,407 in materials and service from Stickles, DPW spent all sorts of time, effort and materials on fixing that break.  How much does any sewer line break cost us to fix?   Only Rob Perry knows -- helpful information that he is apparently not interested in letting anyone else in on.  No need to worry, though, because he and his "WE" get it all taken care of.