A Vermont Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspector found during the June 29 visit that city employees had not properly shored up the walls of a trench more than five feet deep. The water division workers also left soil too close to the edge of the trench’s opening, according to a memo from DPW Director Chapin Spencer.
Those errors could have caused serious injury or death, leading to three citations that initially came with a penalty of $77,000, Spencer wrote in his report. But the state downgraded one of the citations after the city met with VOSHA and made changes to its safety program.
The employee responsible for the violations has been disciplined, as have two other DPW workers “involved in a similar situation recently,” Spencer’s memo said. The employees were not named in the document, and the nature of the discipline was not revealed.
Spencer did not immediately respond Tuesday to requests for comment.
The Burlington City Council on Monday approved Spencer’s request to use money from the city’s water fund to pay off the fine. If the penalty is not paid by October 1, the city will owe the state the full $77,000, according to the memo.
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At the entrance to Shore Rd, DPW installed a middle turning lane that conflicts with street parking. Vehicles entering Shore Rd from North Ave are headed straight into parked cars. We have to cross over into the turning lane to avoid parked vehicles. Frequently over-sized parked vehicles there block sight line, making it even more dangerous.
Now, DPW has added a big orange sign to the travel lane, making the situation even worse.
This dangerous situation has been addressed by residents, and dismissed by DPW. If there is an accident and/or injury at this location, the City will be held liable.
The DPW is constantly doing things like this and needs to be stopped. It’s about time they were fined for at least 1 problem go after the other ones!
On Austin Drive they’ve had huge pits taking up entire lanes sitting vacant for weeks. One lane is completely blocked right before a blind curve, which means every day when I come home I take my life into my hands praying that a car won’t be coming around the blind curve from the opposite direction for a head-on collision. What is wrong with the people at DPW?
They should not block off a lane without putting signs and some type of system where people don’t have to depend on luck to survive the drive home.
No public accountability for any individuals or their supervisors that committed the infractions and the RATEPAYERS wind up paying the fine.
This is why the Public Service Board never fined Burlington Telecom for all the State laws and conditions of their Certificate of Public Good they were violating because it would have been taken out of the hide of their customers, who frankly had a choice as to whether to use BT or not, but, we are stuck with having to use BPW-Water because it’s a municipal monopoly
Nice