David
01-21-2008, 12:59 PM
Readers: please note that there are TWO letters below with different ideas on the subject of sand in Wallingford:
Sandbagged!
Editor:
What’s with Wallingford’s Department of Public Works? The last Town Council meeting revealed they had eliminated Wallingford’s best perk: I was outraged and infuriated with the incompetency of Mayor Dickinson’s staff. I’m tired of being trampled by bureaucrats and it’s time every Wallingford resident stand up and cry out: “Enough is enough!”
What’s at stake here? Free sand!
Not knowing about free sand, as I’m sure most residents didn’t, I bought my own sand every year to spread on 130 feet of sidewalk -- except this year. My back was pleading with me, “I’m lonely and I miss the emergency room. Go get some sand.” I admit I was tempted to buy some. But when 25 people out of 46,000 complain, it’s time for the rest of us to take sides. More than likely it’s the private contractors or residents with 500-foot driveways that have taken a free load or two in the past that are complaining -- but that’s not the point.
Wallingford has retired their Sandboni! You know, that cute little machine that comes around in the spring time doing 2 mph picking up the sand that would otherwise clog our gutters and sewers. So what if it’s high maintenance? So what if it needs a front loader and dump truck to haul away the sand it picks up? What’s the DPW saying: That we don’t need the 3 drivers and the 3 pieces of equipment anymore if we don’t use sand on our roads?
Saving money is actually a terrorist concept designed to undermine our very way of life. My God, if we don’t stop this thing now, where will it end? Kuwait had Desert Freedom, Iraq had Desert Storm and now Wallingford has -- let me hear everyone at the top of your lungs: “Sandboni’s rule!”
ALLEN BANKO, YALESVILLE
Council hourglass
Editor:
Question: When do you know that you live in a town without serious problems? Answer: When the newly elected Wallingford Town Council spends almost half of its 90-minute first meeting discussing sand, and a Record-Journal headline proclaims, “Councilors question lack of free sand” (R-J, 01/16/08). Had I not attended that meeting and heard with my own ears, I might have taken the news article with a grain of salt.
Public Works Director Henry McCully drew a line in the sand with his decision to discontinue providing free sand to residents. The Town no longer buys sand for use on our roads, having switched to an improved salt mixture that is effective at lower temperatures and leaves no grit to sweep or vacuum. Yet, some forty minutes’ worth of sand slipped through the hourglass as McCully’s decision was criticized and second-guessed by the Council – except for Councilor Economopoulos, who realized that McCully was making sense (and perhaps saving some dollars: no sand, no need to pay people to monitor a sand pile, less need for street sweeping, freeing up personnel to do other things?) As a department head, McCully is certainly worth his salt.
I do understand that some people were unhappy and that the councilors were addressing their complaints. But, no matter how much we pay in taxes, since when does government “owe” free sand to residents? That argument was built on sand. I am disappointed that apparently only one councilor realized it.
A molehill was made into a mountain. In the words of Carrie Underwood’s recent song, “Sometimes that mountain . . . is just a grain of sand.”
PATRICIA J. KOHL, WALLINGFORD
Sandbagged!
Editor:
What’s with Wallingford’s Department of Public Works? The last Town Council meeting revealed they had eliminated Wallingford’s best perk: I was outraged and infuriated with the incompetency of Mayor Dickinson’s staff. I’m tired of being trampled by bureaucrats and it’s time every Wallingford resident stand up and cry out: “Enough is enough!”
What’s at stake here? Free sand!
Not knowing about free sand, as I’m sure most residents didn’t, I bought my own sand every year to spread on 130 feet of sidewalk -- except this year. My back was pleading with me, “I’m lonely and I miss the emergency room. Go get some sand.” I admit I was tempted to buy some. But when 25 people out of 46,000 complain, it’s time for the rest of us to take sides. More than likely it’s the private contractors or residents with 500-foot driveways that have taken a free load or two in the past that are complaining -- but that’s not the point.
Wallingford has retired their Sandboni! You know, that cute little machine that comes around in the spring time doing 2 mph picking up the sand that would otherwise clog our gutters and sewers. So what if it’s high maintenance? So what if it needs a front loader and dump truck to haul away the sand it picks up? What’s the DPW saying: That we don’t need the 3 drivers and the 3 pieces of equipment anymore if we don’t use sand on our roads?
Saving money is actually a terrorist concept designed to undermine our very way of life. My God, if we don’t stop this thing now, where will it end? Kuwait had Desert Freedom, Iraq had Desert Storm and now Wallingford has -- let me hear everyone at the top of your lungs: “Sandboni’s rule!”
ALLEN BANKO, YALESVILLE
Council hourglass
Editor:
Question: When do you know that you live in a town without serious problems? Answer: When the newly elected Wallingford Town Council spends almost half of its 90-minute first meeting discussing sand, and a Record-Journal headline proclaims, “Councilors question lack of free sand” (R-J, 01/16/08). Had I not attended that meeting and heard with my own ears, I might have taken the news article with a grain of salt.
Public Works Director Henry McCully drew a line in the sand with his decision to discontinue providing free sand to residents. The Town no longer buys sand for use on our roads, having switched to an improved salt mixture that is effective at lower temperatures and leaves no grit to sweep or vacuum. Yet, some forty minutes’ worth of sand slipped through the hourglass as McCully’s decision was criticized and second-guessed by the Council – except for Councilor Economopoulos, who realized that McCully was making sense (and perhaps saving some dollars: no sand, no need to pay people to monitor a sand pile, less need for street sweeping, freeing up personnel to do other things?) As a department head, McCully is certainly worth his salt.
I do understand that some people were unhappy and that the councilors were addressing their complaints. But, no matter how much we pay in taxes, since when does government “owe” free sand to residents? That argument was built on sand. I am disappointed that apparently only one councilor realized it.
A molehill was made into a mountain. In the words of Carrie Underwood’s recent song, “Sometimes that mountain . . . is just a grain of sand.”
PATRICIA J. KOHL, WALLINGFORD