Gripevine

Gripe Vine Readers:

I have received quite a few pothole complaints and have directed these to the council person representing your district. Occasionally, they are ignored, and I must send a second request for a follow up. There are occasions when a district council person will indicate in their response that they have passed this request on for assistance. That’s it!

Usually, there is no solution received by Gripe Vine to indicate that this complaint has been attended to by a city representative and that the problem had been solved. I also must rely on the individuals complaining to get back to me indicating their problem had been solved by the city.

Here’s an example: Councilman Robert Bruneau received a gripe from a reader, “Someone tried to fill potholes here on Highland and Sawmill Road but only filled them halfway. Others they missed completely and there are causing cracks in the pavement. They look like a war-pocked driveway stip. Please fix it.”

I forwarded it to the appropriate council persons and did receive a reply from Councilman Robert Bruneau who replied, ”Thank you for reaching out. I will notify Public Works to get this handled.”

To update my readers who submitted streets with similar problems, I heard from residents on the following streets: Greta, Meloy Road, Highland, Sawmill, Savin, Church Street, and Campbell. I have forwarded these streets to the Public Works Works Department for repair.

I like to see solutions and, obviously, I wasn’t too happy with the lack of responses I called Public Works and was offered an explanation of why these potholes were not filled. Evidently, there was a delivery delay of a special ingredient to assure a satisfactory solution in the process of filling these potholes. I will be looking for my readers responses on this pothole problem.

Dear Eleanore Turkington:

You helped me many times in the past. Not sure who I should call about the street sign on Cold Spring Road which is dangling. Thanks for listening.

GW

Dear GW:

I left a message at the West Haven Police Department. Has the sign been reattached? Please let me know [email protected].

Dear Eleanore Turkington:

“The handicap ramps were all done last year, but the problem is I live on the corner Chin Clift Trail) and when the city built the ramps to requirements, it made the sidewalk drop a foot so now the grade is steeper than it was. I have my 90-year-old father-in-law living with me and is wheelchair-bound and to push a 250-pound man up the sidewalk is tough.”

ME

Dear M.E.

Steven Johnstone, Councilman for your district was contacted regarding your handicap sidewalk drop. He replied, “I will look into it. I can’t promise it will be right away with everything going on with the budget and ARPA, but I will look into it….no promises but effort.”

Dear Eleanore Turkington:

I visited the beach (dated April 7) this morning with my daughter to pick up some of the trash, nothing out of the ordinary. We were picking up the trash behind the wooden fence along one of the wood bridges that leads to the beach and was picking up numerous nip bottles and beer cans and that was when I noticed the sleeping bags and clothes under the bridge.”

Caring for the Environment

Dear Caring:

Thank you for your cleanup efforts. I notified your District Councilman Meli Garthwait of your discovery of homeless encamping. I also notified the mayor’s office as well.

Gripe Vine Readers:

Gripe Vine received a complaint of lights being out on the Green. Let me know if they have been turned on yet. The city has been made aware of this complaint.

Send your gripes, issues or comments to [email protected] Please include your name, address and phone number. This information is kept in strict confidence with me. You can also submit through our online form.