Excellent follow-up to the dog problem I mentioned in passing the other day, and an inter-related disability access issue that had also come to my attention:
I put together a letter yesterday evening detailing the problems I’d personally seen at the local greenspace, with a suggestion for an interim solution. Sent the letter directly to the department head who would be carrying out the solution (and only to him), knowing he might have to send the request up the chain and therefore providing in the initial letter all the details he’d need to present his case to his higher-ups.
Nope: Turns out the local government agency involved hires for competence and good judgment, and thus has confidence in allowing administrators to do what they need to do. And because said agency requires its key staff to live within its boundaries, department head was already aware of the issue, though he hadn’t realized the extent of it (neither had I, initially — some of the info I shared in my letter I had only learned in talking to users of the facility yesterday afternoon). Got a reply first thing this morning that a better solution than the one I’d suggested would be in place by noon.
No crazy red tape. No shutting everything down for everybody. No politicians making a spectacle of a local food fight. No blustering about how the problems weren’t really problems. Just a decent guy who was ready and able to solve the problem, done.
So. Shout out this Thanksgiving to all the administrators, elected officials, and staff in governance everywhere who do a pretty darn good job being decent and responsive in carrying out their missions.
Photo: Golden retriever with a tennis ball, looking happy about life. As one does, when one has a tennis ball in one’s mouth. Via Wikimedia, CC 2.0.
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