I have been meaning to write to Dan Williamson, the new executive director of the Plainfield Municipal Utilities Authority, to ask for help with the way trash pickups are handled at my location. But an incident today summed up the problem in a graphic way.
The big multi-family apartment building next door is supposed to get trash pickups on Monday and Thursday.Our six-family building is supposed to get pickups on Tuesday and Friday. So this morning a truck arrives noisily and goes next door, where PMUA already picked up yesterday. Meanwhile, another truck (foreground, under my window) comes down our driveway and stops when workers see the other truck. They leave.
So the first crew begins unloading recyclables, which are supposed to be picked up on Wednesdays. They are in the blue can and the Dumpster on the left.
This goes on for a while. I am wondering whether, as sometimes happens, the Monday-Thursday truck will then come over here and take our Tuesday-Friday trash.
No such luck. After they leave, I check our Dumpster and see it is still full of trash. Oh well, maybe our guys will come back on Friday. Or maybe the Thursday guys will pick it up. Whatever.
This randomness irks the hell out of me. These routes have been in effect for years. Why do they tell people a schedule and then not adhere to it? I see the workers consult clipboards , but what does it say on there? Once my neighbor and I asked a driver why they have such mix-ups and he said it was because their boss didn't know what he was doing.
Well, now that Dan Williamson is the boss over all, I expect efficiency and competency to trickle down to the frontline troops.
Wait, wait! Just now, at 9:10 a.m., our Tuesday truck is back! Yay!! Maybe Dan has supernormal powers to know when a mistake needs correction! Go, Dan! I hear the Dumpster being emptied ... problem solved.
--Bernice
You're putting your faith in the wrong person. Williamson makes it up as he goes along. The same efficiency and competency you see at City Hall you will get from PMUA, which is to say none at all.
ReplyDeleteA fish rots from its head. If your elect officials who are idiots it will carry all the way down the line. Quality of life issues can only be fixed when those in power care to follow the rules and enforce them. If you continue to select idiots as leaders, you get what you asked for.
ReplyDelete'An idiot in Athenian democracy was someone who was characterized by self-centeredness and concerned almost exclusively with private—as opposed to public—affairs.Idiocy was the natural state of ignorance into which all persons were born and its opposite, citizenship, was effected through formalized education. In Athenian democracy, idiots were born and citizens were made through education. ' wickapedia
our administration seems to have been born and that was that.
God bless them all, as with ignorance being bliss, we are blessed with a euphoric gaggle of leaders.
Motor Vehicle Agency .... PMUA .... Wait until the Goberment gets its hands on providing you health care.
ReplyDeleteThe best from of protest available to everyone is to OPT OUT. OPTING OUT is the only effective form of protest unless we can get a Mayor and Council who will appoint a new and intelligent slate of Commissioners to the PMUA.
ReplyDeleteBill Kruse
Thank goodness the city of Plainfield isn't in charge of implementing health care reform!
ReplyDeleteI get so sick and tired of the berating of PMUA. What does it matter when they get it as long as they get it! There is a process they use and just because YOU BERNICE don't know it, it irks you! I have never seen such a group of unhappy, unfullfilled people be concerned about trash. Why don't you just say what the real issue is and stop making insinuations. I did not see you harping this much when one of the workers was injured picking up the garbage, nor did I see the praise when he came back to work. COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN. Who sits in the window waiting on the trash truck so they can take pictures and complain. BUT FYI, if this was Tuesday, they pick up EVERYTHING so that most of the staff can be used to do city wide recycling. SO THERE YOU HAVE IT!
ReplyDeleteWow... anonymous and ignorant..
Delete- If the trash is supposed to be picked up on Wed ... it gets picked up on Wed.. Not sure what world you live in that pesky little things like PICKUP DAY don't matter?? Perhaps your house servants worry about such things?? Perhaps you live in a world without trash??
Or simply perhaps you DON'T PAY ANYTHING FOR TRASH SERVICE or are living on that or one of the other Plainfield Gravy Trains?? Huh ??? Which one oh mighty exultant one ?? How about this? How about I borrow about say... $5k-$10k and I'll pay you back next Tuesday.. Since little things like schedules are no big deal.. I'm sure you'll understand when the money is not in hand.
In a nutshell.. Were it costing the city of Plainfield and it's residents NOTHING then there would be NOTHING to complain about.. We're paying for a BMW and driving a YUGO you simpleton.
@9:16am
ReplyDelete1. Plainfield citizens pay significantly MORE than any other surrounding town to get their trash collected. Even when you take out the "shared services", PMUAs basic charge is 30-40% more.
2. Why is PMUA so much more expensive? The options are:
a. There are too many employees for the actual work (ie, for political "payback", people get jobs)
b. The PMUA is not a for-profit, therefore they don't need to be EFFICIENT in their operations, because they don't feel the pressure a for-profit does to pay attention to the bottom line.
c. The PMUA has a bloated administrative staff.
d. The PMUA gives out unnecessary "perks" to management.
e. The past management gave themselves bonuses - unheard of in a governmental entity.
Bottom line -- why do people complain about the PMUA?
Plainfield Citizens get less service, but pay more.
I agree with Bill. People should vote with their feet, fire the PMUA. If enough people opt out, even with the "shared service fee", we'd save money, and put an end to them.
The PMUA is nothing more than a bloated agency sucking up our money! The citizens task force proved that the PMUA costs 2-3 times more than comparable trash/sewer entities. The council has sat idle for long enough and they continue to play the stall game hoping that the problem goes away. The problem however is the PMUA and it won't go away unless the council takes action. All the talk from Mapp et al yet no actions are ever taken. They don't really want to do anything about it. Call the governor, comptroller, FBI, and county prosecutor. At some point someone will investigate and people will be arrested!
ReplyDeleteHopefully, the first pair of handcuffs will go to "sick and tired of berating the PMUA 9:16" because you can read between, on top, around the sides of lines and see that they are on that gravy train and want it to continue so therefore everybody stop complaining so I can continue to sit back and live very well off what we (PMUA) can steal from you.
ReplyDeletePMUA totally skipped the Wednesday pickup on Chetwynd Avenue this week. All the cans were on the curb, but at 9pm they were still full and needed to be wheeled back, otherwise a summons would surely follow.
ReplyDelete