As I mentioned before, 2005 was a good year for DevCorp North. The Special Service Area Taxpayers along the Clark /Morse/Glenwood route (SSA#24) bought a expensive pressure washing machine for DevCorp North! Yes, DevCorp North. With money out of the 2005 SSA#24 budget. Yes, the money came out of the Special Service Area #24, 2005 budget.
DevCorp North took your taxpayer money and bought a pressure washer for themselves.
All I kept thinking while I was listening to this was the church lady on Saturday Night Live saying ..."Now, Isn't that special"!
See, a Special Service Area taxpayer can't own property or equipment. But DevCorp North can buy property with your taxpayers money and own it for themselves. What they bought themselves with your money was a super-heavy-duty pressure washer you need a college degree to operate.
Think of it this way, from your wallet to the DevCorp North Storage Center.
From the sound and tone of the meeting I attended, DevCorp North forced this equipment onto the lame duck commissioners. (I attended the January 2006, SSA #24 meeting. I walked in the lion's den and lived to tell).
Alan Goldberg, one of the lame duck SSA commissioners, didn't understand the bizarre logic, wondering why any taxpayer would buy a pressure washer for DevCorp North?
With 185 property owners in this area, less than 10 people know of this extravagant and un-necessary purchase.
Especially extravagant when the pressure washer costs the taxpayers $15,000 dollars.
From what I gather, there are two different budgets (2 sets of books for you IRS men out there) for this SSA #24.
One budget the commissioners have, and one Kimmy Bares at DevCorp North keeps. I have the commissioners version.
16 comments:
JTFM - your logic is pretty impeccable too. A broom pushed on a regular consistant basis by a human being would keep those sidewalks clean enough. The annual sidewalk urine removal could be done with a RENTED power washer, thank you very much. That's what real people do, when they actually give a shit about how the money is being spent.
> ... why any taxpayer would buy a pressure washer for DevCorp North?
DevCorp North exists to use public money for private benefit.We taxpayers bought DevCorp North and their partners land on Howard Street, now they are planning to sell it. They could sell their power washer, too.
If you look closely at the picture you'll see black spots all over the sidewalk. That's gum. Unfortunately it won't come off with a broom. Believe me, I've tried. The only thing that will get rid of it is a power washer. I have no qualms about this thing if it will finally clean the sidewalks.
> One budget the commissioners have, and one Kimmy Bares at DevCorp North keeps.
This is not good.
mr clean-
you are right about needing a power washer to remove the gum. but from someone who has had lots of frustrating experience with power washers, nico's mom was right.
it would have been more cost effective to rent one or hire a firm with their own liability insurance two or three times a year as needed. pw's are finicky and expensive to repair especially if someone is untrained and very dangerous for the same reason.with the force that the water will be coming out of that nozzle,if the operator takes his eye off the direction of the water, a pedestrians' skin could disapear to the bone in an instant.
even with care, plants in parkways are blown away, paint on cars is removed, water under doorways is all too common.
i think more homework needed to be done before this investment in manpower and equipment. this just sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen.
gf-
Good points. I hadn't thought about how powerful those things are. The only business around here that does it on a regular basis is Starbuck's and they hire a specialist to do it once a month during the warmer weather.
> ... it would have been more cost effective to rent one or hire ...
I wouldn't mind taking a peak at the working papers behind this purchase.
I wonder who we taxpayers bought from?
Where did the $15K go?
mr clean, hugh-
the only time they are going to be able to safely use that machine is in the very early morning and then hear complaints from neighbors about noise.i wonder how loud it is? that is the largest pw i have ever seen and overkill for their purposes.
i recently rented a pw from clark devon to clean down our parking lot. it was regular size with 2 wheels and it took two people to get it in the back of the p'up. but it was so powerful it removed lane marking paint from the concrete which is much tougher than gum. rented for less than $80 per day.
i'm afraid they got sold a bill of goods from a snake eyed salesman.
Mr. Clean wondered......>"If you look closely at the picture you'll see black spots all over the sidewalk. That's gum. Unfortunately it won't come off with a broom. Believe me, I've tried. The only thing that will get rid of it is a power washer. I have no qualms about this thing if it will finally clean the sidewalks."
This pressure washer couldn't even remove gum.
Glad to see my personal habits are being closely documented by Alderman Moore and his team of campaign workers. So, this is how we are going to play it huh?
How did gum on the sidewalk work its way to the top of our priorities?
> Someone got screwed and thank goodness it wasn't me.
We are all harmed when you consider the good that might otherwise be done with the taxpayer money DevCorp North is wasting.
Thanks for going to this meeting, Craig. This is the "Broken Heart" at its best.
> ... rented for less than $80 per day.
So if we use it every day we will break even after about 190 days. Rogers Park will be glistening soon!
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