Tagged: Louisville Metro Public Works Department

Newly appointed Louisville Public Works Director Vanessa Burns says improving employee morale will be an important first step in the department, and that being an outsider will give her a better opportunity to implement changes.

In August former Public Works Director Ted Pullen resigned while facing a sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuit. Burns is coming to Louisville from Connecticut, and has served at public works departments in Washington, D.C. and Evanston, Illinois.

She says making the department more efficient is a top priority, but that relations between employees and managers is just as vital.

"We all have got to work on tweaking and trying to improve what we do and how we do it," Burns said. "And I think one of the good things about not being here is I can look at it with open eyes."

An audit conducted last summer found there was mistrust between public works employees and management. It emphasized that the city should begin shuffling managers to help improve efficiency and city services.

Two Louisville neighborhoods have been selected to participate in a pilot program designed to encourage recycling.

Residents of Louisville’s Cloverleaf and Portland neighborhoods are getting bigger recycling bins. The two neighborhoods are part of a pilot program made possible through a grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies.

Metro Public Works spokeswoman Lindsay English says the goal is to see if 95-gallon wheeled bins that are similar to the city’s trash cans will make people more likely to recycle.

Louisville's Solid Waste Management division will hold a public hearing tonight on its five-year plan for the city's garbage and recycling programs.

The plan includes a proposal to ban the use of plastic bags for yard waste and expand composting. As I reported last month, at least one member of the solid waste advisory committee is skeptical.

Joined by Public Works officials, Louisville Metro Council members Marianne Butler, D-15, and Cheri Bryant Hamilton, D-5, called on residents to help them crackdown on illegal dumping across the city.

Butler and Hamilton announced on Friday that the city will install 19 new state of the art cameras over the summer in problem areas, which have seen repeated cases of trash and other junk items being dropped off improperly. The cameras are designed to be mobile and will be moved periodically in the case of violators moving to different locations.

Butler says illegal dumping is a perennial problem in many neighborhoods, and the public can help track violators by visiting the city's website to report an incident and identify illegal dumpers caught on camera.

 "Hopefully with this we will stop the dumping," she says. "We are asking residents to go to the website. Look at the photos that are on it and help us prosecute the people who are devaluing your neighborhood. Because these people are dumping in everybody's neighborhood."