Finance Committee - 8/2/2017 Page 6
Broad Street Parkway. There are section of the Broad Street Parkway that are completely overgrown at this
point. | guess my question is twofold. One is what are we doing on a regular basis to maintain sections of the
city with mowing, weeding, weed whacking, whatever the case may be. Secondly, what areas are we
specifically targeting with this not to exceed $26,000 and who determines that? Is it Board of Public Works?
Are they responsible? |’ll pause there.
Mayor Donchess
| would say generally the Board of Public Works but they really leave it to Mr. Caggiano and the Parks
Department to decide what’s needed the most. We can get a more detailed report from him as to what he
intends to do this year and what he sees the priorities as. In general they don’t have enough people. Probably
we should do twice as much mowing as this. This is a continuation or a repeat of contracts we’ve had in
previous years from roadside mowing.
Alderman Cookson
| just don’t Know what this gets us. | don’t Know how far it goes. It’s similar to a paving exercise. How far does
$2 million go? How far does $26,000 get us? Is it just the length of the Broad Street Parkway and we’re done
or are there other sections of the city that are going to be able to be reached? | guess the other thing that |
would raise at the same time is, again, | know that we’re working with limited staff and | know that these guys
are out there working hard every single day but what are the priorities? Where is our focus and attention and
should this be elevated so that it becomes a regular maintenance issue rather than a one-time a year? Or
where is the cost benefit analysis that says we’re better off spending $26,000 in august/September than we are
having people go out every month and maintain a section of the city? | don’t know.
Mayor Donchess
But to get these detailed answers, we need to call on Mr. Caggiano which we can do if that is your pleasure.
Alderman Cookson
Again its small money but | want to make sure that we’re spending it wisely, and effectively, and efficiently. |
would love the opportunity to have Mr. Caggiano come or at least provide us with a communication to say this
is what $26,000 is going to get us. This is the area of focus. We're going to be able to cover this many linear
miles of the Broad Street Parkway or however it is that he wants to describe it to us. | just don’t know what this
is going to do for us at the end of the day. The other thing is we really only have a growing season of six
months. So the other six months are going to be fall and snow on the ground. Sometimes we don’t even get
to the section on Broad Street that | get to drive by every single day. Once the snow comes or once fall
comes, those weeds die back and die away and maybe they’re not even touched until the next spring. Again |
just want to know what we’re doing, how we’re doing it, and whether it is cost effective in the way that we’re
doing it.
Mayor Donchess
Well we can get either Mr. Caggiano to come in or give us a memo on this. Where on Broad Street?
Alderman Cookson
Just the intersection with Coliseum and heading west towards Hollis from Coliseum on Broad. Somebody just
did a fine job out in front of Broad Street Elementary School just west of Upstone Drive. That was a section
that the School Department their lawn maintenance didn’t even touch. It was affecting line of sight issues as
you’re looking westbound from Upstone. The weeds were probably already close to 8 feet tall.
