Repair Observation

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Recently, we needed plumbing repair at one of our rental properties. I want to share this event with you, and as you read this, keep asking yourself “do I really want a national health care system run by a government agency?” I believe the analogy here is obvious:

Since the plumbing problem was on our property, we called a privately owned plumbing business. One repairman arrived — drove himself. After listening to our description of the problem, he starting looking for the cause. He had to dig away the dirt around a drain hole at the side of the house, and then he began going back and forth from the inside to the outside putting water thru the line. At one point, he inserted several different plumbing tools — a snake, a line with a camera, and another tool that had a cutter attached to the end. He found the stoppage and cleaned out all that he could, enough to fix our problem for that time. At some point during his work outside, he suggested we call the City folks because the problem was at the sidewalk/street — City property. Since there was no drain cap/hole at that area, he also suggested we request one so that future calls could determine exactly where the stoppage was happening and could be fixed (by the City).

As soon as he suggested we call the City, I made the call (why not, I was going to be there waiting for him to finish). Surprisingly, the City folks responded within two hours — and how they responded! First, a truck arrived with two men — a driver and a passenger that I’ll call the Cell Phone guy. They parked in front of the house next door and just sat there — so, I walked over to make sure they knew the problem was at OUR house. The driver pretty much ignored me, and the Cell Phone guy was taking another service call, all the while exclaiming something like . . . “man, another one, what’s going on today!”

After a time, they both got out of their truck. However, for some reason, they didn’t head over toward our house . . . just stood around their vehicle. Finally, they had all of their “gear” (clip board, cell phone, gimmie hats, and sunshades) and headed our way. Our private enterprise plumber guy was still on the job; he was finished, but he was putting away all of his tools. We invited him to explain what he had found to the City guys and why we had called them, which he did.

Meanwhile, another City truck arrived. This one had a big trailer with some type of equipment mounted on it, and there were also two guys in it — a driver and a passenger.

The four City guys put their heads together, and it was decided that our situation was not an emergency and half of them could leave. The original two continued on with their investigation of the problem — walked over to the dirt area (that was now all put back nicely) and nodded that this was the place to start. They stepped off how far it was from the house to the sidewalk and began to write down something on their clipboard. Eventually, the clipboard was put down and their COLOR camera came out to go down the pipeline to check out the situation — or rather the location of the problem.

We were informed that our problem appeared to be about 20 feet from our house (not on City property), and it was not their concern. However, since our private plumber guy was still on the job with us, he entered into the discussion on our behalf. The “short” of the story is: the City guys left saying they would give their information to an engineer back at the office. If the engineer determined that there was a problem on City property, they would be back in a few weeks to work on it. (That’s a total of five City guys who were involved in this service call. Notice, I said “involved in,” not “worked on” this service call.)

That was over four weeks ago, and guess what? We have not heard a word from the City! Besides that, each time we pay for City services in the form of taxes, I wonder how much lower they could be if the management were more like that of a privately owned business.

If you are still “on the fence” about the national health care issue — check out the efficiency of your local post office; that’s another story! Take a number, please . . . .