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Summer heats up for busy service department
(by Sue Reid - July 07, 2010)
Summer heats up for busy service department
By SUE REID
The heavy summer months equal a number of duties in the various divisions of the city's service department, Director Thomas Bandiera said this week. Those divisions include solid waste, streets and sewers, as well as the fleet division, which is in-house, he said.
In addition to the general day-to-day operations with regards to rubbish and recycling collection, Mr. Bandiera said brush collection throughout the city, including yard waste and grass bag collection, is performed.
"This is also a time where we have our staff pretty busy taking care of our class four compost facility," Mr. Bandiera said. That facility also undergoes monthly health inspections, he said.
"We have to make sure we're doing everything properly," Mr. Bandiera said.
In the department's streets division, the landscape crew is performing landscape restoration throughout the city, Mr. Bandiera said. An example of this work is when roadside ditch lines are cleaned by the sewer division and the area would need to be re-seeded, he said.
The streets division is also busy performing asphalt and road repairs throughout the city, he said.
The streetscape crew is responsible for streetscape throughout the city, including in the downtown section. "We work to keep the sidewalks clean and take care of all the city properties as far as mowing, edging, weeding and fertilizing. We take care of all the planters, watering, weeding and fertilizing them on a daily basis." Maintenance of the new Solon Veterans Memorial Park also will be the responsibility of the city service workers, he said.
Work also includes ongoing maintenance of the city's two cemeteries, Roselawn on Solon Road and Mount Hope, off of Harper Road.
The sewer department also remains busy throughout the summer, Mr. Bandiera said, performing dry-weather monitoring.
"We are looking for storm outfalls," he said. This is part of the phase-two storm-water permit.
Another large duty in the summer months involves the city's mosquito program, he said. "We are doing early larvae siding of city catch basins and woodland ponds," Mr. Bandiera said. "That prevents the mosquito larvae from hatching adult mosquitoes." Along with that duty, service workers set mosquito traps at various locations throughout the city where there are wet and swampy areas.
With Solon Home Days this month, Mr. Bandiera said, his department is busy preparing and planning its public works booth. The theme this year is "Planet Hollywood."
He said, "Our focus is public outreach and education. We're trying to stress to our residents the importance of preserving the environment." That includes the necessity of recycling and the proper disposal of hazardous waste products, he said.
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