Posted on 01/27/2009 4:52:05 PM PST by BBell
The political tug-of-war over New Orleans' 2009 budget continued Monday as Mayor Ray Nagin announced he will make cuts in the level of sanitation services in the French Quarter next week despite steps taken by the City Council to preserve the "Disneylike" cleaning that has won raves from locals and visitors since it debuted two years ago.
To head off what he said would be a $7.5 million budget shortfall, Nagin said he has ordered SDT Waste & Debris Services to stop providing mechanical street and sidewalk sweeping and flushing in the city's premier tourist district beginning Feb. 1.
At the same time, he said, the contractor will halt around-the-clock maintenance of litter cans in the Quarter, which henceforth will be emptied twice a day.
SDT crews will continue to pressure-wash streets and sidewalks and provide manual sweeping in the Quarter. Daily collection of trash from residences and small businesses in the Quarter, Central Business District and Warehouse District will not be affected, the mayor said.
Nagin said his administration was forced to make "hard choices" by reducing sanitation services because council members did not cut enough spending in other areas when they revised the city's spending plan two weeks ago.
"I wanted to kind of set the record straight because I felt as though once the budget was finally passed . . . that there was this impression that everything was worked out, " Nagin said at an afternoon news conference. "But in reality there's no new revenue and there's no significant cuts."
Nagin said the council's latest budget provides nearly $7 million less for the city's emergency reserve fund than he considers necessary.
Council President Jackie Clarkson, who said she and her colleagues were "insulted" that Nagin didn't notify them about the news conference, said she disagrees with
(Excerpt) Read more at nola.com ...
Some crackhead probably stole the manhole to buy crack!~A year or so ago scrap was high.
What you said about the flashing red light reminds me of the red light cameras. They can’t get the crime cameras to work but boy they sure got those red light cameras working! I can’t figure out why(;’)
That’s what I was told.
There is a place that buys scrap located just off I-10 and Claiborne that has a sign that they will buy no scrap that is delivered in a grocery basket.
My guess is that crackheads would round up scrap in a grocery basket and sell the grocery basket.
I hadn't heard that one. That's the governmental procurement process for you. Gotta find a source that's a small business, minority-owned, etc., etc., etc.
Speaking of Gen. De Gaulle Drive, that's where one of the Orleans Parish fueling stations for city vehicles is located (or Gen. Meyer - somewhere in Algiers). Because Algiers didn't flood, that was a primary source for fuel for all the surviving NOPD police cars as well as vehicles brought by other federal and state responders (including the many volunteered vehicles from other law enforcement agencies).
I heard from a cousin who works for the sheriff''s department up in De Soto Parish in July, 2006. It seems that his office actually received a bill from the City of New Orleans for the gasoline pumped into the police cars they sent down. They were kind enough to include a CD-ROM with scans of the fuel station's logsheets, with applicable license plate numbers and fuel quantities highlighted.
I shouldn't have been surprised, but I was - and angry, too. I told him they should return the bill with a suggestion that the City forward the bill to FEMA (well actually my first recommendation was that he tell the fools in Nagin's office to roll that bill up real tight, and...).
WTF are those fools at city hall thinking? Talk about thankless. Next time the city needs help, all those police departments will remember that and find that they're just too busy to be of assistance.
The mental image of a crackhead rolling a manhole cover down the street so he can scrap it makes me laugh.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.