I just drove back from lunch with a co-worker and witnessed a scene that for some reason made my blood pressure rise about 15 points. It's not the most egregious example of government waste ever discovered but it was still a waste.
There is a bridge over a small river leading into town and this bridge has sidewalks on it. These town workers were using a water truck to hose the dirt off the sidewalks. That by itself seems to be a fairly pointless waste of time and money, especially when there are plenty of tree limbs out there to be trimmed over the roads, roads and sidewalks to be repaired, etc. However what made this such an annoying scene was the amount of manpower used to simply hose down the sidewalk. First there were two flagmen making at least 12 bucks an hour directing traffic around this “project”. Then there was the water truck driver who appeared to be sleeping in the cab with the truck running and the air conditioning on. Then there was the hose operator who was followed closely behind by the squeegee operator since apparently sidewalks can have neither dirt nor water on them. Finally there was the supervisor standing there and leisurely pointing at the next square of dry sidewalk area as if the hose operator would be unable to determine which squares he had soaked down and which he had not.
I understand that keeping the town clean is part of the town government’s responsibility. I just wonder if one needs to use 6 men to accomplish this task. I also wonder if simply spraying water on a sidewalk is the best way to spruce up the appearance of the town. I will be taking this issue up with town hall however I figured venting here and then reading comments from others would help focus my complaint leading hopefully to a better use of limited resources.