Do taxpayers get a Square deal on Christmas tree?
An alert reader writes:
My office overlooks Pioneer Courthouse Square. Both last year and this year, my partner and I watched 6 City Employees take 5 days to reattach limbs to the Christmas Tree. Mostly just standing around. Now we have watched 5 or 6 City Employees, plus a few boon trucks and parked boons take 5 full days to cut those limbs off and take the tree away.Readers? Anybody know?I hate to be a Scrooge, but is there a way to find out how much it costs the taxpayers to have 480 hours of time plus equipment costs to set up and take down a tree?
Your advice would be appreciated. I’d just like to know (enquiring minds and all that).
| Posted at 8:42 AM | Permalink |
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Comments (10)
My guess would be city water bureau employees. They have enough spare time that they need to fill in with such things as the improvements to the McCall waterfront site before "selling" the building to the Rose festival people and plunking the rose neon fixture upon.
Posted by teresa | January 10, 2011 12:09 PM
Passing through there several times during the process, I don't think it was city trucks putting up the branches. As I recall, the trucks had some landscape company name.
http://tinyurl.com/4ox9qu3
Posted by none | January 10, 2011 12:30 PM
How many (fill in the blanks) does it take to screw in a light bulb?
VTY,
The "Oldest Curmudgeon"
A: probably three, one to hold on to the light bulb, two to spin the chair....oops, and one to drink the egg nog.
Posted by Mike | January 10, 2011 2:02 PM
How many (fill in the blanks) does it take to screw in a light bulb?
VTY,
The "Oldest Curmudgeon"
A: probably three, one to hold on to the light bulb, two to spin the chair....oops, and one to drink the egg nog.
Posted by Mike | January 10, 2011 2:03 PM
At least some of the work is done by the lads working for the square, which is organized as a non-profit. Parks Bureau employees might also be involved. Plus, the lights were put up by (likely) a union shop, though supposedly donated.
Posted by umpire | January 10, 2011 4:28 PM
We saw the same waste of time through the web cams and laughed. Until we remembered it would be costing us a lot of money somewhere along the line.
Posted by Dell | January 10, 2011 8:05 PM
Spending public money on a Christmas tree is disallowed. It's a Holidays tree. [snark]
Posted by Tenskwatawa | January 10, 2011 10:46 PM
The correct term is boom trucks
Posted by Will | January 10, 2011 11:00 PM
I wondered about whether it was boon or boom. Either way, they just sat there.
Posted by nancy | January 11, 2011 9:14 AM
The city shouldn't be paying anything at all for what is essentially a religious display -- especially not one that represents a particular sect. I don't care what secularized name is used for it, it still violates the First Amendment and I'm surprised there hasn't been a court challenge. Let the downtown merchants fund it if they want, or perhaps a consortium of local churches.
Posted by Semi-Cynic | January 12, 2011 5:55 PM