The following is an ‘Ask The Mayor’ question submitted to TLS, and the Mayor’s response. Email your questions for the Mayor to AskTheMayor@thelakewoodscoop.com.

Question:

Dear Mayor,

Thank you for your time and consideration. I’ve had a lot of difficulty getting a leaf and brush removal at the properties 950 Woodland Drive and 956 Woodland Drive. We have called numerous times, for many months and we area totally disregarded and our pleas are ignored.

These calls have been placed since the end of March. We are promised a date and then no truck ever comes. Every two weeks we make a call in and are told just put it out and we will collect it. Week after week, no one ever comes for months now.

The problem goes much deeper. Both curbs are loaded with leaves and brush. It is impossible to park there. Since the lake was closed , due to the corona pandemic everyone brought their cars up the hill to be parked around the curve and up the block of Woodland Drive. This was so they can walk around or brings their bikes around to the park on South lake Drive. There is no room for more than one car to pass through. The children are on bikes, and they are driving back and forth and it is a dangerous situation. No one can see around the curve who is coming, and one day there will be a serious accident.

There is even parking out to the street beyond the leaf piles. Traffic is very busy here after four oclock when all the school children stop their home schooling and come to ride their bikes around the lake.

I realize staff may have been short during this time of the pandemic. I called the Department of Public Works just last week, and told them about the problem again. The lady said she will tell the supervisor. They did nothing about it. Yesterday, I saw trucks pull up to collect leaves on the block, and then did nothing, stopped for a moment, and then continued on, totally ignoring the piles. What is going on here?

Will you please help with this, before someone, Gd forbid , a child, is hit by a car going around a blind curve, ducking the leaf piles and the cars. I appreciate everything you can do about this.

If you would like, I will forward pictures to you if you need more of a graphic idea of what is going on here , especially in the afternoon.

Thank you for your help.

Response from Mayor Coles:

Good afternoon,

Our apologies for the wait. This has been a challenging few months for all of us, including our Public Works Department. It took us a while to get caught up on bulk pick up after suspending it around Passover. We have also had several employees out sick over the last few weeks, but things are starting to get back to normal.

We have had brush pickup being done on the first shift and leaf pickup on the second shift. Hopefully we will be caught up in the next few days. I’ve asked Public Works to try to get there ASAP.

I hope that you & your family are doing well. Thanks for reaching out.

Stay Safe

Ray

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