Cast your vote on the new poll over to the right. This time, I’m asking readers what they thought of the city’s response to the Eagle Harbor sewer leak.
The corroded sewer pipe leaked an estimated 140,000 gallons of untreated sewage into the harbor from Saturday to early Tuesday morning, when the leak was fixed. Health officials are still advising people to avoid contact with the harbor’s water and tidelands, as well as the shore from Yeomalt Point to Rockaway Beach.
You can find the results from the last poll (“What’s the main reason voters chose the council-manager government?”) below. Seventy-nine people responded. Dissatisfaction with Mayor Darlene Kordonowy was cited overwhelmingly as the reason islanders changed the city’s form of government.
1. 48 percent: Dissatisfaction with Mayor Darlene Kordonowy (38
Votes)
2. 29 percent: A desire for a more efficient and cost-effective
City Hall (23 Votes)
3. 9 percent: City staff exercise too much power (7 Votes)
4. 8 percent: The mayor position had too much power (6 Votes)
5. 5 percent: Citizens want more say at City Hall (4 Votes)
6. 1 percent: Most cities of BI’s size have council-manager
governments (1 Vote)
The problem is that a corroded pipe created a disaster when it should have been inspected and fixed prior. Why do we let 32 years go between replacing pipes? Do we not have inspections that take place annually or on schedule? The cities reaction to the problem was all they could do likely, but the problem SHOULD have been prevented entirely.
Surprise heh to hear what people think of the Mayor? The Mayor has never communicated clearly enough and never has expected the City employees the need to move fast and meet the needs of their employers, we the tax paying public. As has been said by so many it turns out she has none of the skills required to lead and manage an organization!
It’s easy to say it SHOULD have been inspected. I wonder how realistic it is to inspect every inch of a buried pipe on an annual basis. That would entail digging it up every year. How often do you do that for your own home? You don’t? Where is your plan?
As far as it being a DISASTER–it isn’t. You’re making a mountain out of a molehill. The state ecologists say it will be cleaned up in a matter of days through natural means. The tests show no appreciable pollution. Good Lord, get over yourselves. The sky is not falling.