Friday, July 11, 2008

Island Cleanup

The government has a very large Department of Public Works that is supposed to build and maintain roads, keep the trash picked up, keep the public areas' brush trimmed, and lawns mowed.
The road projects don't get done by DPW, so the government has to contract that out. (they recently contracted out the re-paving of a 1.5 mile stretch of road for $8.1M)

DPW was supposed to rebuild the public market. But then they realized they'd have to do some work, so after tearing down the roof, they wanted to burn the debris. This is old roofing materials that may contain asbestos. There is probably 4-5 pickup truck loads of debris. I know because I've had about 7 months of looking at it. DPW asked EPA for a waiver to burn it because they said it was too hard to pick up the debris and haul it away. EPA denied that. So they kept asking for a waiver. EPA said no. DPW said it is too hard then and they can't do it. Instead of forcing DPW to do their job, ASG contracted out the re-building of the public market. (this is probably a 4000 square foot space, but the contract is for over $1M)

So what does DPW do? Nothing. There is a washed out section of road on my drive to work. It has been that way for a long time before I moved. Instead of fixing it, when it washes out and is full of nearly impassible potholes, DPW leaves it for a week or so, then they throw on a truckload of dirt to smooth it out. Guess what happens when it rains again?

Anyway, you would think DPW would have plenty of time to pick up trash and keep things neat looking around the island. You'd be DEAD WRONG. They do none of that. Even the Governor has had to hire a private yard service to keep up the brush around the entrance to the residence. So with the upcoming humanitarian disaster (Pacific Arts Festival), the Gov has decided that the island needs to have some of it's trash picked up. So tomorrow every ASG employee is supposed to go to their assigned location around the island and pick up trash and trim the brush. This starts at 8am. I have court at 9 so I don't have to do it. But this situation is ultra-pathetic. Plus, I don't expect the showing-up rate ASG wide to be much more than 50% tomorrow, nor do I expect the "work day" to last past 10am. This place just doesn't stop amazing!

The last time we played sloshball, it rained, but we played anyway. The weather looks pretty bad for this weekend here, but we're playing again. Here's a picture from last time.



Also, I figured out how to get N64 games onto my Xbox. I now have Mario Kart64 and Bust a Move 2. Woohoo!

8 comments:

KDub said...

Aaron: You're lucky Sara isn't there. She would own you in busta move. That DPW job sounds pretty nice.

Perez said...

I'm surprised the EPA has denied their request. I guess if AS had oil or was run by one of DICK Cheney's minions then the Bush administration would have generated some study showing that burning asbestos actually had vitamins in it.

James said...

Asbestos does have vitamins! (according to two donkey-blog comments --- IT MUST BE TRUE!)


Aaron, I was thinking you guys might want to think about going with the 20 cents charge on plastic bags. That will solve all your trash problems and you can tell the DPW to take a holiday?!?

stadtler said...

It's good that you have Cart now so I won't completely destroy you (I'll only partially destroy you now) if/when you come back. Imagonnawin!!

Here's an awesome lil ditty about your fav track.

You know what'd really fix AmSam? More committees. That's the Seattle way!

That Guy said...

Sloshball looks like so much fun. It's definitely my kind of game.

P a n c a k e said...

Too bad I missed that hopeless, too little, too late trash clean up.

Also, the charge on plastic bags would never work. Money disappears on this island time and time again...

fogfan said...

What? You mean they aren't going to assign students from the public schools to clean up the island? That's what they did to us when I was at Samoana High.

Ahhh...American Samoa. The island that knows how...to f**k things up.

Kang Boim said...

BLOG HOPPING HERE.....have a nice and beautiful day,take care