Here We Go Again With The Whack-A-WaterMole! Get Out The Checkbook and Tell Dewan Sarowar To Come Have A Look!

At least two houses in the 200 block of Columbia Street (210 and 212) were flooded this morning due to a municipal pipe break that I have been told by a DPW employee was related to a water main, not a sewer pipe.  It is a wet, muddy mess down there, street closed, a waiting fire engine, and it appears that a local excavation contractor has been called in to assist ($$$$).  This is a much larger response than yesterday's response to the busted pipe at 4th & State, which appears to be completed (though a dirt and stone surface is waiting for asphalt to patch the hole). This latest headache for DPW -- and expense for the city -- will not be wrapping up today, and it's entirely possible that the 200 block of Columbia will be closed to traffic all weekend.

It's worth repeating that we have one DPW Superintendent with a salary of close to $125,000 whose responsibilities run the gamut of dealing with all matters related to dozens of DPW employees, ensuring our drinking water is safe, sewer pipe maintenance, cemetery maintenance, streetlight maintenance, and, yes, even the painting of carrots on the street every spring to usher in the arrival of the farmers market.  Keep that in mind as the city continues to crumble, taxes are raised annually, Rob Perry's salary raises annually (by 4%?), and the city's new head Code Enforcement Officer gives his monthly department report to the so-called SAFETY COMMITTEE rather than the Code & Infrastructure Committee, both committee's having been created by the new "president" of the feckless Hudson Common Council.  That's the council which has one member who claims to live in the 2nd ward in the 100 block of Columbia Street in a house he does not own but almost certainly actually lives, eats, watches television, and sleeps in with his wife and child(ren) in a house located in the Town of Greenport that he has co-owned with his wife for 10 years or more.  One wonders what Dewan Sarowar thinks about today's water main break located in the ward he supposedly represents and lives in.  Does he care about those houses that are being pumped of water and mud right now that will likely cost the city money, perhaps lots?  Does he care how much this latest municipal pipe repair job will cost the city (which may include the removal of water from the flooded houses by a contractor not working pro bono)? When Dewan Sarowar woke up this morning and stepped outside to head to work, did he notice the DPW presence amid the watery mess at the end of the block he claims to reside on?  Or was he able to not be bothered by it, or see it, at all?

Try to keep all of that in mind, if you can, the next time DPW requests more funds from the common council (and they approve it) to cover the escalating expenses of repairing a crumbling city that is slowly but surely running out of money.

And add this to the list of underlying context:  The city-owned streetlight on the southeast corner of 2nd & Columbia (an intersection under water as I write this) has been on day and night for at least the past 5 months, perhaps a lot longer.  The light has been on 24/7 for several months while taxpayers pay for the electricity to keep those new LED bulbs burning throughout the day.  Day after day after day for months, obviously ignored by Rob Perry.  It's not his problem to deal with.  OBVIOUSLY.  (Both the mayor's office, one 2nd ward council member, and Rob Perry have been made aware of the broken, wasteful light on multiple occasions through two means:  emails and the Hudson Hub.  Nothing works.  No one cares.)

Maybe, come to think of it, it's a good thing that city-owned streetlight attached to a National Grid-owned utility pole is on today.  Perhaps it is assisting Rob Perry and his crew as they do their best to see what pipes need replacing below the street there at 2nd & Columbia. 

Henry Haddad, who is our 1st ward council member, SAFETY Committee chair, co-chair of the Infrastructure & (No) Code Committee, and all-around bon vivant recently told me that he was sure it was in March of this year when he saw National Grid place this arm and streetlight of ours upright on the sidewalk in the 100 block of Union.  NG likely installed the new pole (on the left) and, for whatever reason, had to remove the arm and light from the old pole, which is not their typical modus operandi.  I'm pretty sure this happened last fall.  

Don't you love all the gravel on the sidewalk that National Grid left us to clean up some year?  Think Rob Perry cares how much of National Grid's gravel gets on our sidewalks and streets or into his precious sewer system?  Think Henry Haddad, Dewan "Greenport" Sarowar,  Say It Ain't so Joe Ferris, or Margaret "parking lot curb jumper" Morris care?