Water Leak

 From what I have heard, the Carbondale water system has a crack somewhere. A few thousand gallons of water a day are leaking out, causing the Carbondale water towers to empty and necessitating running the water plant 24 hours a day to refill them. Unfortunately no household meter is showing any exceptional amount of water use so the city is looking for water draining into a stream or forming a pond somewher. If you happen to notice water where it normally is not, the city would likely appreciate you contacting them.

Public Works

In case you were wondering what the Carbondale Public Works department is responsible for, here is a list:
City Engineering
Street maintenance
Water treatment and distribution
Sewage collection and Treatment
Solid Wast Collection and disposal
Cemeteries
Cedar Lake
Municipal rental property
Equipment and Building Maintenance

See Click Fix

Just learned about this app for your smart phone from City Manager Gary Williams today. It is called See Click Fix and can be downloaded to your phone for free. When you see a non-emergency problem that the city needs to address, such as a pothole or street light out, you open the app, take a picture of the problem, add an description and email it automatically to the Public Works department. If you like, you can do it anonymously . Turn around time, according to one person I spoke with who has used the app is less than 4 days.  He reported a pothole and, 4 days later, the city had repaired it.

Road Closure

For those of you that use Charles Road, a notice from the city:

TRAFFIC CLOSURE ON CHARLES ROAD

BEFORE THE INTERSECTION OF ROUTE 51

                                                                                           

Due to wastewater collection system repairs, Charles Road before the intersection of Route 51, will be closed starting on Monday, October 19, 2015 at 7:00 a.m. and will remain in place until Friday, October 23, 2015 at 5:00 p.m.

The City apologizes for any inconvenience that this closure may cause and urges all vehicular traffic to use alternate routes during this time period.

If you have any questions, please call Sean Pickford, City of Carbondale Civil Engineer III at 457-3270.

West Sycamore Yet Again

Recieved a call from the city's Public Works department after stopping by to check on the status of West Sycamore last week.  The contractor is supposed to finish up their current project by the end of this week and get back to work on West Sycamore next week.  Projected finish date for street and sidewalk repairs is now by Thanksgiving.

Beth Ponce Terminated?

Just found out that Director of Public Works Beth Ponce was either quietly terminated or put on administrative leave (accounts vary) about the 26 of April. Another employee apparently is currently performing her job duties.  Her job vacancy has not been posted by the city and she is still listed on the city staff directory, so my guess is administrative leave.

Roadwork

The city ran an ad in last Sunday's Southern, officially notifying the public of upcoming road projects funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The four projects noted are:

--constructing the Marion Street Extension from College to Mill Street
--resurfacing Washington Street from Walnut to Mill Street
--resurfacing Wall Street from Mill to park Street
--resurfacing Oakland Avenue from Willow to Rigdon Street

No indication from the ad when to expect this to start but, since the city is accepting comments until April 6, I 'd guess not until then.

Road Work

Westbound 13 by the (now shuttered) Horizon Inn and BP Petroleum is down to one lane of traffic this morning due to road work. Traffic was backed up to Godfathers when I drove by this morning.