NEW ORLEANS — The New Orleans City Council had plenty of questions for the Department of Public Works when it came to cleaning catch basins and repairing street lights. Unfortunately, many of those questions went unanswered.
Councilman Oliver Thomas said, "My concern is that how can we be in the 21st century, in a major city in a metropolitan area, where the city isn't lit and the drains aren't unclogged."
According to the Department of Public Works, more than a million pounds of debris has been removed from the city's catch basins. At Monday's meeting inside council chambers, DPW said, "We have three daily crews that are out there every single day during inclement weather."
DPW told the city council they only have 27 workers and equipment operators and need to hire 30 more people to help clean the catch basins.
"We're working with a civil service right now to do a comprehensive pay study so hopefully we can increase those rates... our laborer rate is $16.32 an hour and our biggest competitor in this city is Walmart."
Councilman Thomas asked how many catch basins are broken or in disrepair, DPW responded with, "That's an unknown at this point."
Councilman Thomas says the issue runs deeper than the catch basin, saying, "You can clean the catch basin all you want, but if that drain line that is connected into the system is clogged, broken or in disrepair, the water can't go anywhere."
DPW maintains 54,000 streetlights. The department reports repairing 1,435 lights – on the interstate and local roads. Resetting 154 leaning poles and installed 39 new poles, this year.
Councilman Joe Giarrusso says some residents have reported lights being out for six continuous years, he said, "We really have to get to a point after a certain period of time, is it three months, four months, this becomes a huge priority and this is what we're trying to do to get it addressed."
To which DPW responded, "The data that we have has not been kept up very well."
DPW says four to six crews repair street lights daily, yet much of the city, remains in darkness.
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