In the past month, I have been subjected to the frustrations of dealing with the city bureaucracy.
I had contacted the street maintenance department to request that the back alley behind our house be graded, as it was in a terrible state due to inadequate maintenance over the past few years.
The response I received was that the grading would be done when the equipment was in the area.
Makes sense, I suppose, however this alley is well used and in the worst state than I have ever seen it.
As time went on without any action, I contacted the department two or three times with again no action.
So I thought I would try my city council members as election time is coming and they might be a bit more attentive.
Well after three or four calls, I was able to actually talk to one of them and explained my dilemma.
The promise was to pass on my complaint and hopefully the process could be moved forward.
Well, over a week has gone by and I still get the same response from the department: we will get to it when we are in the area and that might not be for another two to four weeks.
I was informed at this time that there are much worse alleyways than ours and my comment to this was that just imagine what could have been done with the nearly $1 million wasted on the bike lanes, which was met with, ‘Well that wasn’t my decision and yes, the bike lane fiasco wasn’t one of council’s finest moments.’
When one drives around the city, it’s impossible not to see the steady deterioration of our roads. All I can say is when it comes to the election this fall, I really hope that taxpayers look especially hard at the incumbents who are running and have to be held responsible for the decisions they made whilst in power.
At least it looks like we will have a number of good new candidates to choose from, which will put the onus on citizens to understand who and what they are voting for.
After my recent experience with bureaucracy, I am convinced that we are more than ready for formation of the ward system in our city. At least let’s get the conversation going.
George Croome
Red Deer