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Uploaded: Tuesday, September 4, 2012, 12:37 PM
Trail to close Wednesday for mosquito-abatement repairs
Hole below tidal floodgate in Palo Alto Baylands to be temporarily fixed
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by Sue Dremann
Palo Alto Weekly Staff
Photo
 | A popular Palo Alto Baylands trail will be closed Wednesday, Sept. 5, while crews repair a hole beneath a floodgate that has caused mosquitoes to proliferate, the Santa Clara Valley Water District has announced.
The tidal gates in the Palo Alto Flood Basin allow water to create habitat for wildlife and protects against flooding from Matadero, Adobe and Barron creeks in Palo Alto during heavy rains and high-tide events.
Scouring tides over time have washed away sand and sediment from beneath the structure, causing a basketball-sized hole underneath. Pooling water from tidal flows activated dormant salt marsh mosquito eggs, which have hatched into large numbers.
Water-district contractors will pump fast-setting concrete into the hole during low tide. A more permanent fix has not yet been developed, but is planned, officials said. The gates were built in the late 1950s and are not weakened in any way, officials said.
The trail, which is just north of the Palo Alto Baylands Nature Preserve, will be closed for the day beginning at 8 a.m. Work will take place until about 7 p.m., with some construction noise, the district said.Are you receiving Express, our free daily e-mail edition? See a sample and sign-up for Express.
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Posted by We-Don't-Need-No-Stinkin'-Permits, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Sep 4, 2012 at 6:59 pm While this is good news, one can only wonder if all of the permits are in place that allegedly had been the holdup for fixing the levee, according to previous Weekly articles. There seems to be no mention of the permits, or if the work is being performed sans permits.
Those permits are no doubt as pesky as the mosquitoes.
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Posted by Sharon, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Sep 4, 2012 at 7:03 pm Who are going to be fired for this fiasco ?
We need accountability and the prompt firing of those responsible
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Posted by Robbie, a resident of the Ventura neighborhood, on Sep 4, 2012 at 7:31 pm It sounds like Mother Nature and Old Man Time are responsible for this. Why don't you try firing them?
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Posted by Sharon, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Sep 4, 2012 at 8:31 pm
In fact the " hole" was evident for a long time.
The people we pay to fix these things did nothing and they failed
Empty chairs and empty suits who do not deliver-at whatever level- should be fired ASAP-when they do not deliver
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Posted by you are fired, a resident of the Downtown North neighborhood, on Sep 4, 2012 at 8:33 pm [Post removed by Palo Alto Online staff.]
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Posted by Sharon, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Sep 4, 2012 at 8:52 pm
We pay a lot of tax to support the people who have promised to inspect and fix this.
They did not deliver
They did not deliver-they should be fired ASAP
Incompetence -at local-state-federal level must have consequences - fire them
The empty suits-empty chairs-incompetents
The problem with the tidal gates has been obvious for months-
Fire the responsible people and get someone who can do the job-not just make false promises and make speeches
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Posted by Hmmm, a resident of East Palo Alto, on Sep 4, 2012 at 9:48 pm How much, exactly, is a lot, Sharon? Who are the "we" to whom you are referring?
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Posted by We-Don't-Need-No-Stinkin'-Permits, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Sep 5, 2012 at 7:03 am > It sounds like Mother Nature and Old Man Time
> are responsible for this.
Responsible for causing the hole--yes. But not responsible for fixing it.
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Posted by Jim H., a resident of the Duveneck/St. Francis neighborhood, on Sep 5, 2012 at 11:22 am Sharon,
Why are you always so angry? Granted, life isn't perfect, but might as well enjoy it.
Did YOU let anyone in the City know about the problem with the tidal gates, since you say it's been known for months?
Geez, lighten up a little.
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Posted by Rolling Eyes, a resident of the Adobe-Meadows neighborhood, on Sep 5, 2012 at 2:46 pm Oh Sharon, go hire someone so YOU can fire them yourself. Enough with the faux outrage and blood lust over someone losing their job. Sheesh.
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Posted by probably sharon, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Sep 5, 2012 at 4:00 pm [Post removed by Palo Alto Online staff.]
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Posted by Donald, a resident of the South of Midtown neighborhood, on Sep 5, 2012 at 7:02 pm I am glad that they didn't drop all their high priority jobs and move all their equipment off of other projects to immediately fix what was, at that time, a small and inconsequential leak. If they acted that way and their large projects fell behind schedule and over budget then they would be managing incompetently and should be fired. When running an organization like this you need to set priorities and make decisions based on the facts available to you at that time. Sometimes a decision doesn't work out in the long run, but that doesn't mean that you should have chosen differently. It just means you were unlucky. It boggles my mind how nasty and unforgiving people can be in these forums. It is clear that they have never had to manage a bunch of projects at the same time and had to deal with weather, equipment maintenance, etc.
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Posted by Sharon, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Sep 5, 2012 at 7:20 pm
We have experience managing complex multiple projects in commercial business.
In commercial business if you are incompetent then you are fired.
The Palo Alto - simple project - was handled incompetently-those responsible should be fired.
Public employees and politicians work for the tax payers-local-state and federal-if they are incompetent they must be fired ASAP
They work for us - if they do not deliver then they must be let go
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Posted by Arnold, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Sep 5, 2012 at 9:03 pm I don't believe that it makes sense to fire someone just because they made a mistake. If they repeatedly demonstrate total incompetence, then fire them. Otherwise the consequences of firing an employee may be worse than the consequences of keeping him/her. Everybod makes mistakes, and people should be given a chance to learn. If you fire someone they you have nobody doing that job, which is generally not a positive. Then you have to hire a replacement, which is the most danger-fraught task a manager ever has. Firing someone should be a last resort, not the immediate reaction to a mistake.
Sharon, tell us more about your business experience. Did you ever make a mistake? Were you immediately fired if you did?
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Posted by Hmmm, a resident of East Palo Alto, on Sep 5, 2012 at 11:26 pm Fire them for what? There was no devastating result. A bunch of us got a bunch of mosquito bites. So what? Overall, mosquito abatement works quite well. These buggers weren't carrying West Nile. The workers don't work for Sharon or other PA residents. They work for the city. They answer to supervisors, managers & directors. The city is for the people, but pretending that a city worker works for the taxpayer is misleading. It's really not the tax payer that the city worker answers to - it's more complicated than that & to pretend otherwise is misleading and/or ignorant.
The bottom line is that no one was damaged as a result AND it's being fixed. Sheesh.
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