Rewind and press play
Today begins a new month, a good chance to start over, turn a new leaf and begin again. I’m going to try to write something on this blog first thing every morning.
I have been, as I knew I would be in this new ‘Javascripts’ endeavor, a miserable blogger. I write the blog in my head every day — part of my internal conversation with myself. But I don’t have the time — or maybe it’s the discipline I lack — to write a post.
Say No to Drugs March
Today is the 27th annual “Say No to Drugs” march put on by the Riverhead Community Awareness Program. If you live or work on or near the route of the march (which starts and ends at Pulaski Street school) step outside and cheer the kids on. It’s an important message to reaffirm for these youngsters.
Communication dysfunction in Riverhead
I wish I knew the exact route of the march so I could be more informative. It’s not easy finding this stuff out, even when it’s useful informaiton to pass on to residents.
Riverhead Town government has some communication issues. For one thing, the town doesn’t have anybody in charge of communications, like just about every other government agency in existence. For another, nobody seems to be thinking “Hey, it would be a good idea to let residents know about …[fill in the blank].”
This week was another reminder of this ongoing communication dysfunction. With 2012 came a change in the town’s 20-year-old garbage collection schedule. Even though I wrote about it on Jan. 2 (see story) I still forgot about the change. Heck 20 years is a long time.
Beginning this year, when there’s a holiday on a regular collection day, the pickup that day is canceled but the collection schedule the rest of the week remains the same.
So I was surprised… and then mad… when the garbage truck came down my road on Tuesday (my regular pickup day) and I missed the pickup. This is annoying, especially after a holiday weekend, when you’ve always got extra garbage.
I wasn’t alone. As Paul Squire reports on the News-Review’s website, people who usually have Monday pickup and were expecting their trash to be picked up a day later — as it has for the past 20 years — were angry about the canceled collection.
The good news is, we Riverheaders now have two chances every week to have our household trash picked up, because they will pick up regular trash on the “bulk waste” collection day too. If you have Monday pickup, you can put out household trash on Thursdays. (Of course, if you’re confused, you probably hauled it back into your yard and missed the Thursday pickup too.) If you have Tuesday pickup, you can also put trash out on Friday.
According to Squire’s article, Sanitation Superintendent John Reeve said he was “expecting” the confusion and said his department was getting 15 calls per hour Tuesday from residents who were confused or irate.
If you’re expecting people to be confused by the change, Johnny, do something to help them in advance. REMIND them. In this 21st century world we live in, you or your assistant could have taken five minutes to send an email to the media Friday and we would have gladly put the word out over the weekend. Or how about an email on Tuesday, asking us to remind people who missed their regular pickup day this week they’ve got that second chance on bulk waste day?
A little communication goes a long way.
Same holds true for road closures, whether due to accidents, road work or… parades.
Why is this so hard? It shouldn’t be, even without a town communications officer.
My moment of zen
June is a lovely month. Flowers bloom, birds sing and everything is pretty. That must be why June is traditionally the wedding month.
In my own backyard, the lilac blooms have faded and the peonies are beginning to look sad, but the hydrangea right outside my office window is blooming and Peter has positioned a thistle feeder, a hummingbird feeder and a regular bird feeder right there too for my enjoyment when I look away from this monitor. It’s all good. Keeps me centered.
June is my favorite month because it’s the month I became a mom. Katie was born on the 16th and Courtney was born on the 25th one year later. I can hardly believe my firstborn is turning 20 this year! Gulp. How did that happen?
Have a safe and happy day.
Denise Civiletti, reporter, editor, digital maven and former newspaper editor and publisher, lives and works in Riverhead. She vaguely remembers having a life away from electronic gadgets before being consumed by her role as a digital-hyperlocal-news-entrepreneur-pioneer — lol— publishing RiverheadLocal.com with her husband Peter Blasl.
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