Following up regarding Scrapping light poles

There was a story in the Wednesday October 24th edition of the Record Journal titled Scrapping light poles: Is it such a bright idea? which I have cross posted to my Wallingford Politico blog.

I started the follow up yesterday with my “MY TAKE - Scrapping light poles: Is it such a bright idea?” post and it seems there’s more to discuss.

I followed up this morning again with Purchasing Agent Sal Amadeo by phone to formally let him know that Public Utilities Director George Adair indicated to me that he is scrapping all the fixtures working or not. As he indicated to me and to the Record Journal:

“We (the Wallingford Electric Division) don’t consider them suitable. We (the Wallingford Electric Division) do not want to perpetuate the use of them. We (the Wallingford Electric Division) consider them truly to be scrap.”

I then asked Purchasing Agent Sal Amadeo should that assessment, that the ornamental fixtures being taken down were of no value, been made by the Public Utilities Director or by the town’s Purchasing Agent.

He indicated that normally as part of his duties as the Purchasing Agent that he would otherwise handle “surplus property disposition” whether the decision be to recycle the materials or to try to sell them. He also indicated that to find out any further, specific details around the present situation that I should follow up with Mayor Dickinson.

I placed a call to Mayor Dickinson and he pretty much concurred with Public Utilities Director George Adair that the ornamental fixtures being taken down were of no value.

I countered asking, “perhaps no value to us as we did not have any desire to use them anywhere in town (and whether we could or not is in dispute; they do function but they are difficult to maintain) but beyond that, how could we automatically assume that no one anywhere couldn’t?

While I didn’t use this example in my conversation with the Mayor, I have sold many of my old computers after I was finished with them. They were no longer of any use to me as I had reached a point of doing more with them than those systems could handle. Having said that, for someone that wanted to use them for just email and some word processing, those “no value to me” as a high, power user, systems had value to those users and I often could resell an $800.00 system for $150.00 to $200.00.

So I am still following up.

To me, I do not understand how Wallingford reached a decision that these ornamental fixtures being taken down were of no value because the person that normally handles this work, the town Purchasing Agent, did not perform their responsibility as it was not requested of him.

I do not know how the Public Utilities Director reached his decision and based on what practice and whether or nor decisions like this were done in the past.

At this point I need more information to understand why this occurred the way it did and I will need to continue to ask and follow up.

I expect more to come. Stay tuned.