05/18/10 Draft/Memo/Safety and Facility AuditMEMO ORA P- iz7
Memo for the files of Fred A. Leistiko
May 18, 2010
Subject: Safety and Facility Audit
Today we conducted and audit of the exterior shop area belonging to the City Shops. We were
assisted by the new Superintendent for the Public Works department, Leonard Hogan.
Building #8 at address 1428 is a cold storage, wood structure occupied by several departments
for storage. This structure is definitely a safety hazard and should not be occupied. It is not on a
permanent foundation and the entire structure leans badly. The inside of the structure is full of
junk belonging to several departments. There is everything from new tires stacked in the corner
to old police car body parts like doors, dashboards, bumpers, etc. There are bicycles, chairs,
benches, filing cabinets, and a locked police evidence room. There were no fire extinguishers
anywhere in the building. This structure should be torn down and replaced with a steel structure
that can be used for storage.
It is apparent that the complex has no overall supervision. Each Foreman, for each department,
takes care of their building and the rest of the yard is fair game for trash, discarded vehicles,
discarded appliances, iron, wood, tires, you name it. Nothing is discarded, the feeling is that
some day we might need it. That leads to a lot of broken equipment waiting to be used for parts.
With a little organization and a couple trash trucks and some manual labor, the yard could be
cleaned up considerably. The worst part is that the yard backs up against the High School
athletic field and stadium where thousands of people can see the junk yard that belongs to the
City.
There are several old police cars that were purchased for parts sitting in the yard. There is an old
grader, an old street sweeper, an old camera van, and several other vehicles with flat tires parked
along the fence line. There is white, green, and blue plastic pipe in several locations, some
broken and some full length.
It is obvious that nobody is taking responsibility for the `yard'. Outside of the buildings, the rest
of the compound is fair game as a junk pile. With some organization, each department could be
given a certain section of the yard to maintain as their outside storage area. It should be
organized and an inventory kept of all material in their yard. As it is, it is hard to identify who
owns what material. If it is not claimed and controlled by anyone, it could be sold or sent to the
salvage yard. Some of the rolling stock could come off the books so we do not have to pay for
insurance and license for them.