WHEN YOU SEE A FORKLIFT IN THE ROAD, TAKE IT
A fun fact emerged from the most recent Bishop City Council meeting.
The City of Bishop Public Works Department does not own a forklift. Really. A forklift. Probably one of the most basic and useful pieces of equipment on the planet for picking up and moving heavy and odd-shaped construction, landscaping and building material.
I picked up on the city’s forklift issue (see what I did there?) when Public Works Director Nora Gamino briefed the city council about some heavy lifting needed to complete several upcoming road and sewer projects. She casually dropped in some possible obstacles created by a lack of a forklift but was upbeat about her crews’ ability to pick up the slack in their forklift-less world (that’s a twofer).
On the other hand, I almost dropped my pen. How is it possible that skinflint Bishop has avoided buying a forklift for, I don’t know, decades? The city inspects and repairs sewer and water lines, takes on street and sidewalk improvements, maintains parks and playgrounds, and operates water and sewer plants. Those are essential city chores, and many involve heavy construction, and moving heavy equipment or material, with the emphasis on heavy.
Apparently, the city’s public works and parks crews use muscle, ingenuity, ratchet straps, winches, pulleys and probably even a block and tackle to get heavy stuff onto trailers or in truck beds. Egads. Taking the whole rustic, pioneer vibe a bit too far, gang.
Maybe the city could start a Go Fund Me called “City of Bishop Forklift Fund.” Here’s the pitch: “Help Bishop reach up to new heights and not hurt its back or pull a muscle by contributing to the Bishop Forklift Fund that will help finance a new forklift. It will be quite a lift to raise enough money for a forklift, but citizens can step up, reach into their wallets and help elevate the city’s equipment roster by contributing to the Forklift Fund. Please, don’t let us down.” (I will donate that verbiage to the campaign because I’m a giver.)
On the other hand, if the city wants to continue to take the path of least resistance and even less cash, this equipment omission could become a money maker for the Laws Railroad Museum. Laws has a forklift. I’ve seen it in action, and if I remember correctly, it’s a pretty nice one. Laws could raise cash (again, I’m not stopping) by renting its forklift to the city when it needs to do some heavy lifting.
Or the city can casually ask the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to toss in a spiffy used forklift as part of the ongoing, never-ending nose-bleed land swap and lease negotiations/deals. I’m betting that there is a used forklift somewhere in the vast complex of parking lots, garages, and equipment yards in LADWP’s solid four solid block domain consuming most of South Fowler Street and more. And even a castoff forklift, I guarantee, will be “spiffy,” if not downright spectacular, since one look at what’s parked in its lots confirms that LADWP does not scrimp when it comes to buying heavy equipment. And no one in the local maintenance yard will say anything about missing an old forklift since LADWP seems to get new heavy equipment, from dump trucks to cranes to forklifts, as soon as the “old” stuff needs an oil change or gets dusty. Mention, “can’t find the forklift” and a new one will be trucked in by the end of the week.
Just take off the City of LA decals and drive the forklift over to the City of Bishop yard one night. No muss, no fuss, and no one in the downtown LADWP HQ has to know.
Jon Klusmire of Bishop worked hard this week to find an uplifting story about the City of Bishop (ok, that’s the last).
