City of Dallas furlough has trickle down effect

Tuesday is trash collection day in our neighborhood, and for once I had mine out on time.  But driving through my neighborhood after dinner around 9 PM on Tuesday night I noticed that everyone’s garbage was still out.

My first thought was that they were running behind because of the 4th of July Holiday.  Then my second thought was that it may be furlough related.  The City of Dallas decided to shut down most city services on Monday as a cost saving mechanism, but fire, police, (emergency services) and trash were to remain unaffected.

So it didn’t seem right to blame the furlough either.  When we heard the garbage truck coming through around 10 PM, I went outside to see what was up.  There was a gentleman riding around in a Sanitation Services pickup, so I asked him what was the deal.

He said that even though the garbage collectors were working on Monday, the maintenance persons in charge of servicing the trucks were off.  As a result 5 or so trucks that were in need of repair Monday were unavailable.  This was still having an effect on trash collection on Tuesday.  Maybe they’ll keep the maintenance guy on the clock during the next city furlough on September 4th.