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This got picked up today. All that’s left is the dead grass from where the trash sat for almost three weeks.  Interestingly, this did not get picked up today.  Both houses on the on the same street, North 3rd, and about a stones throw apart.  Hmmmmmmmmm…..

A few houses up the street from house from yesterday is giveing away a easy chair if you know anybody looking for one.

The trash in the picture below has been waiting to be picked up for close to three weeks. The house in the picture is on North 3^rd – the main corridor from the industrial park, I-35, CAC and the Mayborn Center into downtown area. I am fairly confident that this mess appeared on or before September 2. I know for a fact it was there on the 3^rd – this was when I made my first note about it. The bulk pick up day for this house was supposed to be on September 8^th. This Tuesday, September 22, is the next pick up day. According to the plan approved by the Council (4 of the 5 members) the maximum amount of time garbage is supposed to sit in a front yard is nine days. So what happened here? I know, I know…. I could’ve called it in myself and gotten it picked up a long ago. But I was curious how long it would sit. Is this really the kind of curb appeal we want to be known for?

Here’s a question. Should the taxpayers foot the approximately $738 bill that the City incurred a couple of months ago to dispose of the brush from one home pictured below? I will admit that I just can’t get my arms around the fact that you can put pretty much whatever you want by the curb and the City will pick it up for free or a modest $65.  Click here to view a generic analysis on the costs associated hauling 4 loads of brush to the dump.  The cost is bad enough but the fact that a job like this one would pretty take the whole day really steams me.

According to Wikipedia the “law of unintended consequences” states that any purposeful action will produce some unintended consequences. I often find myself plagued by the repercussions of this law. Why just last weekend I committed mass homicide of the gold fish in my backyard pond. The water level was getting kind of low and I thought the fish would like some more room to maneuver. I proceeded to place the hose in the pond, turned on the water and moved on to other chores. About three hours later I remembered that I forgot to turn off the hose. I rushed out to find all twelve of my dear friends floating on their sides. I can tell you my kids were not happy campers but the good news is that I now will have the opportunity to rally our economy as I go to Wal-Mart to purchase more aquatic life for my backyard ecosystem.

Now take a look at the picture below. The photos below were taken last Sunday. The top photo is a house around the corner from my house. The one below was taken on Airport Road. The building materials from the bottom photo had been there ten full days as of last Sunday. Now here’s the real question… why do these people have the idea that it is acceptable to put this kind of trash out on the street? It is just foreign to me that folks will set anything out in front of their homes or on the street. But then again, the City has ALWAYS picked up whatever people set out with little or no consequences. To be clear, I have no concerns over the City providing bulk trash pickup services to the community. What concerns me is that by offering this service we have somehow communicated that the City will pick up whatever is set out, no matter what. Building materials with exposed nails from a gutted house can’t be what my Council brethren (and sister) were thinking of… or were they? Come to think of it this gives me an idea for a side business. I think I will call Killeen and tell them they can dump their trash in my front yard if they pay me half of what they pay to use our landfill.

Who’d a thought too much of Temple’s top-quality tap water would kill fish?

I have been blogging about City stuff for six months now. So how we doing so far?

Let’s see…
The taxpayers dodged a $2.7 million bullet that would have provided no bang for their buck. We’ll call this a win!

I’m sad to say that the taxpayers will see an increase in their solid waste rates while at the same time we will see more trash on the streets for longer periods of time. The vote was 4 to 1. Can you guess who the loser was?  My only consolation is that the trash will only be out on the streets a maximum of 9 days instead of 14+ days. Since it didn’t turn out as bad as it could have we’ll call this a draw.

The conflict of interest issues that caused me to launch this blog are still hanging out there for all to see. All that is needed to put this issue to bed is a Charter Review.

If a truly independent group of citizens serving on a Charter Review committee were to bless the current, and unprecedented, practice of awarding multi-million dollar construction contracts to a sitting Councilman I would be more than happy to turn loose of this albatross. So far I am on the losing end of this stick.

Finally, It would appear that I have, for the moment, lost in my quest to curb the practice of perpetual reappointments of the same people year after year to City boards. I have been adamant since my first day on the Council that we need to continually be appointing new people to these boards. It is ironic when you think about the fact that the handful of folks that want to serve in perpetuity were once newbies themselves.

If you are new to this blog please don’t assume that I only write about the stuff that I don’t like. I have spent considerable time writing about a lot of the great things going on in our community. I think this is important too since our local media’s glass can tend to be half empty a lot of the time.

1 win, 2 losses and a draw. I’m kinda sorta, almost batting 500.  Don’t worry I have 18 months left.

Maybe my take on people dumping trash in their front yard is all wrong. Until today I saw it as a step huge backwards in our approach to building and protecting the image of our community and neighborhoods. I kept thinking about all of the energy that has been expended towards this goal over the last six years.  Things like Keep Temple Beautiful’s efforts, our newly acquired Tree City designation and the formulations of neighborhood enforcement groups and strategic investment zones, recently enacted masonry and fence ordinances… It was just mind boggling to me that we would spend so much time, energy and dollars on these efforts and then make a decision to allow trash to collect on the curb for up to nine days.  But then it hit me - my glass was half empty and it should have been half full. As I was driving down 5th Street (District 3) yesterday I saw the stuff piled up by the curb in the picture below.  The old saying “someone’s trash is another man’s treasure” came to mind.  I thought of the old TV and mattresses from last week’s posts and came to the conclusion that we could really run with this. We could run radio ads encouraging people to visit Temple to check out all our trash.  “Need some furniture, tires, mattresses? Choose Temple!” could be our slogan. This could really drive tourism!  I must admit it was really shortsighted of me to get bent out of shape on this issue and I commend my fellow Councilmembers on having the foresight to tackle this potentially lucrative issue.  From now on my mantra is “the more trash the better!”

I am pleased to announce that the two piles of garbage were picked up sometime between 4:00 and 6:00 this afternoon. The good thing is that it got picked up.  The bad thing is that it took 7 days to get it picked up. I wonder what the neighbors thought about the mess.  What about the homes that are for sale?   What about the kids that ride their bikes on the sidewalk? For the record, I have no problem with leaving brush out for 7+ days. My problem is leaving trash out for 7+ days.

The picture below was taken Wednesday morning by my lovely wife.  Thank goodness some civic-minded individual reassembled the mattress sculpture. Looking good don’t you think?  Up to nine days is an awful long time to enjoy displays of this type.

Day 5

This photo was taken yesterday. Look at how the the pile is growing after only five days. Anyone looking for an antique television could very well be in luck.