Carpentersville the 'do-it-yourself' town
In a recent letter, a fellow Carpentersville resident recounted a truly aggravating story about having his water turned off. He said the "unprofessional attitude and insincere concern only solidified my belief about a mismanaged, incompetent community government."
It is this complete void of leadership which has me referring to Carpentersville as the "do-it-yourself" village. Recently, we all experienced a nasty spate of bad weather, with snow, sleet, rain and cold over the course of a few days.
Feb 3. brought us yet another snowstorm, which ended by 9 p.m. The first sign of plows came the next morning at 9 a.m. I am sure that those drivers were already quite exhausted from the snows which came prior. But by Monday night, we all knew the next wave was coming. My street had turned into a lake, as gutters were still clogged with snow.
For safety reasons, I broke out my shovel and cleared away the snow from the drains to drain this lake. It brought to mind several other recent incidents where I had to "do it myself" if it was going to be done.
Last winter one of the plows in the village ran off-course and skinned a 130-foot swath of grass from my lawn. The village did come to fix it. When I returned from a business trip, I found the old sod remained where it had lain for 2 months, turned over and killing the lawn underneath. The village had plopped down dirt clods and some grass seed.
Upon registering my displeasure with the village, I was told sod was not in the budget so I had to fix it myself. This same process has repeated itself for several other items which should be properly addressed by the village.
To be clear, all of my dealings with the village employees have been pleasant, and all things considered, I do not blame them for the sorry state of these services. Perhaps at the very top, our village leaders should focus on the job they were elected to do, serve the village. Stop the bickering and self-contradictory actions.
Take heart, Carpentersville residents. There is a solution. In this season of elections, I look forward to the next race for village president. Then we can do something about this and once more, we can do it ourselves!
Michael Finneran
Carpentersville