UPDATE - Sun Valley Dumping

I drove over to Sun Valley Park today to see if Louisville Metro Mayor Jerry Abramson & his Public Works Department kept their word on cleaning up the park. As you will remember, the park was used as a dumping ground for the debris left in the wake of the September windstorm, and was completely covered in limbs and garbage and suffered extensive turf damage from unattended piles of waste. The site was also confirmed to be harboring filthy, disease-carrying rodents that then plagued the neighborhoods surrounding the park. Take a look at the condition of Sun Valley below. Metro Parks said the park would be cleaned up by Christmas. The following photos were taken at 2pm today.



HERE is my original post on the subject.

As you can imagine, the place still remains an awful, outrageous, embarrassing mess. There is simply no excuse for this type of inaction. While I was there, I witnessed one (1) man operating a backhoe, loading debris into a large semi trailer. The same man then got in the truck and drove away. That's right. There is one man on this cleanup job. It is being handled by Chip Trucking, based in Louisville. HERE is the website for Chip Trucking.

I am waiting to hear back from Tom Yonders, an area property owner that confronted Mayor Abramson during the last Community Conversation over the rodent issue. I'll let you know what he says.

UPDATE 12/30/2008, 8:45pm: I just got off the phone with Tom, and he has been in constant contact with the proper city people concerning the cleanup process and is frustrated over the utter lack of progress. Tom has been given a few flimsy "estimated completion dates" by the city, yet the people he has spoken with refuse to guarantee a date on which the work will be completed. Mr. Yonders and I are urging everyone in the area to call Metro Call @ 311 and demand Sun Valley Park be cleaned up. Tom said he was told by a city official that Cox Park in Downtown Louisville was being cleaned up first, as it was a priority because of "Thunder Over Louisville". Disgusting.

This is yet another example of bad, lazy, ineffective and downright incompetent city management, especially when it comes to listening to the concerns of the citizens in Southwest Louisville. Please call 311 and voice your concern. In a few days, if there is no significant change in the pace of the clean up effort, we will go to the mainstream media outlets with these pictures and Tom's story. This issue will get the attention it deserves.