Everything has gone downhill with the recent protests and, law and order in chaos with police defunding that has wracked NYC. Sanitation is crucial but De Blasio, according to sanitation union chief Harry Nespoli, is making a mistake defunding sanitation.
NYC is overrun by rats in recent days with untrained snowplow drivers who have been victims of the city budget cuts according to Nespoli of the Uniformed Sanitationmen's Association. He added that budget cuts by Mayor De Blasio has been problematic for the sanitation department, New York Post reported.
He added that funds are not enough and the choices considered by the Mayor are not the right ones, which is impacting the city negatively. Just like other city agencies that were hit by unwanted budget cuts, the Department of Sanitation got a high cut out of its budget recently this year. What's worse is the loss of $9 billion due to the coronavirus pandemic.
To save on funds, one move was to lessen the funds of the sanitation departemtn to collect the trash from the streets. By lessening the frequency of the pickup from garbage bins, the city was able to save $2.5 million as a justification.
Nespoli said that all the baskets at the corners will get filled up faster with excess trash. Even rats are coming out in the daytime to feast on the refuse, making it clear in his statement that rats and trash can be prime sources of public health problems.
He also mentioned that sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia said that no funds are available to train 963 new sanitation personnel, especially getting them ready to drive the snowplow in city streets.
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Part of the training for the equipment is knowing the routes when the flurries. Also, learning where to put the snow and handling the equipment properly.
Another is the mileage that plows would drive through storms in NYC, which is a round trip from New York to California, and back. He stressed that plow driving is specialized that needs money for operator training, noted Best Ways News.
The sanitation department head made it clear that they are hardly prepared for it. Nespoli is the key representative of 6,500 members and is the chairman of the Municipal Labor Committee in NYC.
He punctuated that keeping people safe costs money and keeping lives safe is the priority. According to him, saying that training costs money and it does not come free is a mistake.
As a reminder to the Democrat inclined mayor, he pointed out one mayor who discounted the training his personnel used to get the snow cleared in Christmas blizzard of 2010. Most of the side-streets in the outer-boroughs were blocked with snow. At some point, an ambulance had to be pushed to get it out of the snow.
One representative of the department punctuated that snow training is not cut yet. But, the funding has not been allocated for it yet.
Joshua Goodman, agency spokesman said that despite the cuts made, the welfare of the workers is important with the hope that federal aid will be given to the sanitation department.
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