By Linda Scott
Watertown Resident
The road to Hell is paved with good intentions. Perhaps you’ve heard that expression. I have some good new personal intentions … to get my blood pressure (bp) down. So I get up, breathe deeply, and take my bp. High, but lower than it was. I’ll take it. Now for a few minutes of meditation. (By the way, thanks to the Health Department and Stephanie V for getting me started on this path).
That’s done. Now let’s take a walk up and down my street with my dogs … weather’s cool, air is crisp, with that ever-present eau de garbage aroma (it hasn’t been collectedon the even numbered side of my street for fifteen days).
I’ve called 311 numerous times, and so have my neighbors. I know that their (311’s) intentions are good, but so far they haven’t been able to interest anyone in tackling this.
So, as I walk down the street, workers for the gas project are arriving. A strapping young man enthusiastically jumps out of his vehicle and puts on his hard hat. He’s parked in a handicapped spot for the second time in a couple of weeks.“Excuse me, sir,” I holler (he’s a few houses down). “Excuse me. Are you handicapped?” I manage to get his attention now, and he looks at me with a look of both confusion and disdain.
“You’re parked in a handicapped spot.” He gets a slight grin on his face, which I interpret to mean “So what?? What are you going to do about it??”
Fortunately for both him and for my blood pressure, a more senior worker who is driving a truck up the street, divines the situation and says to this kid, “You need to move your car. You can’t park in a handicapped spot.” The guy is not happy, but listens to his coworker.
Okay, so I’m back in the house. It’s 7:15 AM, and I’ve been told that the DPW has early hours (and only early hours) for residents to communicate with them.
I call, first option 2 (Trash and Recycle). I get referred to 311. I call option 1 (Representative). I get referred to 311.
I try to call the “Administration,” option, but that option no longer exists.
Who can I reach? Who can I reach at DPW??? I know … I’ll pick the option for “Accounts Payable.” They’re always open to collect money, I figure. And Bingo! I get an actual person! A lovely, polite young lady answers.
I ask her if the early DPW hours are only available to residents if they actually walk in off of the street? That question seemed to confuse her. I told her that I had some luck with the “Administrative” option before, but now it’s missing.
She confirms that the menu has changed recently, because of the “volume of calls.” (So help me, if this young woman gets in trouble for telling the truth, I’ll personally hire her lawyer! Blood pressure, Linda!)
This young woman gives me the e-mail for the guy in charge of trash at DPW. She says that during the strike he’s at the Waltham Street site, but he can receive e-mails. She even offers to e-mail him herself with the issue. I thank her and send this to Mr. Bacon (PS: I address him as “Mark.” His name is “Matt,” not Mark. It’s early … my mistake):
My e-mail to Matt:
“Hi Mark,
I have a request. I have submitted this to 311 on numerous occasions, but it doesn’t seem to have gone anywhere. Other neighbors have done the same. This is day 15 for trash not being collected on Olcott Street (and day 8 for yard waste). We have gaswork being done on Olcott. It’s been happening for months and is now at a stage where they’re just hooking one house up at a time.
We need some coordination here to get this problem handled. I hear that you’re the guy. Please contact whomever ASAP to get this problem resolved.
Thanks!”
To Matt’s credit, he responded quickly. Even though the news did not look good, I won’t shoot the messenger. I would say that telling the gas people not to work on that particular day of the week on Olcott Street or until they get the “okay” from the DPW to go back could be an option.
These gas guys, although nice and hard working, don’t seem to be in any kind of hurry. Some days the workers are parked, just sitting in their cars, for an hour or more in the morning until their trucks arrive. I’m guessing that’s not their fault and that scheduling is not very well planned. At any rate, I would hope that there would be some room for flexibility.
I’ve also heard from two residents in two households on my street that after the gas line work was done, they had to scramble and make multiple phone calls to find someone to turn the gas back on. Apparently, the contractor didn’t handle that.
Here’s Matt’s response:
“Hi Linda,
In normal times Republic would send drivers early to get in before the work starts. With the strike still happening Republic’s replacement drivers have been unable to get into town much earlier than 9:30 every day due to a variety of factors. I’m working to figure out how to get them down Olcott with the work, but when they’re digging and laying pipe unfortunately we can’t have trucks driving down the road.
Please leave the bins curbside and as soon as Republic Services is able to get a truck in there they will be emptied. Also if you have overflow or extra material that cannot fit into the bins please bring it down to the drop off site at 148 Waltham Street. We do have trash, recycling and yard waste drop off down here.
Thanks
Matt”
Perhaps you’ve heard this expression: You can’t get there from here? It’s 8:00 AM, and I’m already feeling tired. I’ve gotta take some pills!!
A Good News Update!
The latest (15 day) neighborhood trash crisis was resolved by noon today on Olcott Street! Matt, I want to thank you for responding to my street’s cry for help! It’s such a simple thing, trash removal, but it means so much to a neighborhood. I’m sure that you and I can both agree that we cannot wait for this strike to be over!
To My Fellow Residents:
My neighbors and I are in District D. Is anyone else experiencing these or other problems on their street and are having problems communicating with the DPW to get them resolved?
Please share them with us and indicate by street and/or district where this is happening. It would be good to get a real sense of where issues are occurring. This is not a replacement for 311. Please be sure to call 311 to get your complaint recorded. And have a nice, stress-free day!