It was just a few short months ago that Public Works director Katie Kalb was getting grilled, with residents of PAC1 in East Durham turning up the heat while their voices sizzled with complaints over a city street paving dump site that had been set up on a vacant lot across from the Albright community garden.
The PAC1 Coffee with Council session this year gave residents a chance to bring up the matter, and they seemed to relish the opportunity, with Council members Cole-McFadden and Clement turning icy cold in their remonstrances to the administration for the dusty eyesore's ongoing presence near a playground.
All of that changed this weekend with a celebration event on Juniper St. The only things getting grilled were hamburgers; the relish was for the hot dogs (mustard, too); and buns were being snacked on, not seared.
Yes, the City completed its clean-up of the Juniper St. site; Kalb had been tasked by city manager Tom Bonfield with finding a way to fund removal of the asphalt, railroad ties, and old granite curbs that cluttered the site, as we saw here earlier this year.
(We talked here last week of about one element of Bonfield's success to date in the Bull City, the clear differentiation he's drawn between legislative and executive duties in Durham. A second: we've heard from multiple sources about Bonfield's style of delegating responsibility to department heads to fix issues and, with the aid of the very able Reginald Johnson in the manager's office, ensuring follow-up and accountability.
It's a key differentiator in any manager's success, and it's a practice that City Hall watchers have praised the new manager for following.)
From the press release:
City Council members and City Manager Thomas Bonfield will be in attendance to help celebrate this long-awaited accomplishment, recently completed through collaboration between the City’s Departments of Neighborhood Improvement Services, Solid Waste Management, and Public Works.
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