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Folsom's sewer problems


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#16 john

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Posted 19 November 2002 - 12:53 PM

We actually had the same thing happen to us with the sewer line being backed up. It was however the developer's fault - turns out that some bulldozers ran over the pipe (which went under our lawn) and crushed it.

We didn't notice it until we were running the dishwasher, and when we did, soapy water with God-knows-what was bubbling up in our front lawn. It was gross!!!

Fortunately we had just moved in so everything was stillunder warranty. Our builders (Kaufman & Broad) had to pay for the repairs, which included ripping up the front lawn to get to it. Our front yard hasn't been level since, but that's another story...

It was very typical of our developer, K&B. They are notorious for cutting corners and seeing what they can get away with.

Take it for what it's worht though. I for one do not condone bolting down manholes, but your story sounds an awful lot like the predicament we were in.


#17 (catess)

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Posted 20 November 2002 - 08:56 AM

I sure wish Val wouldn't drag the school district "down the sewer"! We have an excellent school district, with especiallly excellent schools within the city of Folsom. Our disciplinary rates are very low compared to other districts. We try to take preventative measures to avoid the delinquency Val discusses. The police department has been very supportive in providing education in areas where your typical math teacher is not necessarily qualified. Our students are not drug crazed, gun-wielding, smoking zombies. Come to any high school presentation, open house, etc., and you will see that we have an exceptional student body. A few bad apples will not affect this bushel!

#18 ljselig

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Posted 21 November 2002 - 12:20 PM

I asked a registered civil engineer about large rocks being found in the bottom of a manhole in a wetlands.
He informed me that where the ground water might push the concrete manhole structure out of the the ground, rocks are placed on the bottom as ballast. It is similar preventing the heaving of pools out of the ground, by keeping them filled with heavy water.

Using Rocks as ballast, they are placed in the bottom of the manhole structure and cannot block the incoming and outgoing sewage flows.
Looks at though the city has put one over on people again.

I never believed that "vandalism" was a problem at the hundreds of manhole covers sealed, bolted, and pressurized in the city of Folsom. How many vandals sit in the middle of Folsom Blvd. to get a charge out of ratcheting open a cover in the middle of traffic???

Someone should post the Sacramento Bee Oct 23, 2002 article about what is really going on.


#19 bettyemahan

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Posted 21 November 2002 - 02:06 PM

Thanks for the enlightenment!!! I hope a copy of your post gets to "City Hall"!!! I doubt if many residents believed this vandalism scam any more than some of the others they have tried to pull. What do you think Bob? dry.gif

#20 valdossjoyce

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Posted 23 November 2002 - 08:53 PM

rolleyes.gif Hey, Catess! My tongue-in-cheek solution for manning the manholes was meant merely to take a jab at the Folsom Police Dept. I think our schools are extremely safe and our kids are taught more than enough about the perils of drugs, alcohol, sexual predators, etc. I'm not sure Columbines can be prevented by police presence...it's kind of like suicide bombers. So having cops hanging out at the schools all day is a bit much. We've got great kids, some great teachers & they're so far from the sewer, they're not even in the gutter!

I don't know where the others have lived who contend Folsom is short on police officers and that response times are unacceptable, something we heard a lot about before the election. I've lived in Southern Calif. middle-class suburbs that were not elite, nor were they ghettos, and in suburbs of New Jersey far more upscale than Folsom. By comparison, Folsom seems to have a lot of police officers with not a lot to do. I'm not saying we should lay any of them off, as our city is growing rapidly and we'll probably grow into the number we have now. But we surely don't need to hire more, as everybody else seems to be suggesting.

And I admit to having mixed feelings about having so many officers watching our kids. On the one hand, our kids know they'd better not try anything in Folsom..on the other hand they growing up disrespectful of police because they're so obviously out to get them. My kids have each had one bad experience with police on campus. I never complained about it because I believe there's a certain deterrent value in keeping the kids on their toes. (I believe in a united front with police/teachers/other adult authorities versus my kids if my kids have done something wrong, even if I don't totally agree with the action taken). But it does point out how little these officers have to do, that in once case, the officer followed by son to his car, even after he produced the hall pass that showed he was permitted to go to the car in the parking lot to get his report, and then stood there watching him get the paper, smelled stale tobacco smoke, and then asked him if he had tobacco in the car. I've taught my kids not to lie, so he answered yes, the officer asked him to produce it and he did (cigarettes in the glove compartment). The whole thing cost my son a $35 fine, but the worst part was an appearance in junvenile court with mom on a school/work day. He wasn't even caught smoking, just possession of cigarettes in his car. If a teacher or administrator had caught him smoking on campus, no criminal consequences would have resulted. Hence my point, we're criminalizing/over-reacting to kids conduct by putting law enforcement on campus. My daughter's experience is even more innocent and ridiculous. As a freshman, one of her teachers had marked her absent by mistake, when in fact she was tardy. A few days later, she got called to the office and was interrogated about "truancy" not by a Vice Principal, but by a police officer. Now that's over-kill.

I also find it ridiculous to see two and three officers responding to regular calls, a normal occurrence from what I've heard from friends and acquaintances over the years. They're just bored to tears and so over-react to what little happenings do come along.

As for the schools, I think teachers should teach, cops should handle crime, and some sort of other school employee who gets paid a whole lot less than teacher or cops should be the enforcer of campus rules. That would be much more efficient, and when I was a kid in LA Unifed Schools, I think we called them Hall Monitors and Vice Principals... And now that we're on the topic of teachers, just because I'm always blasting the teachers' union when they put union interests ahead of kids interests, I truly have a great deal of respect for teachers. One of the problems I feel they face is having to do too much administrative paperwork. It would be far more efficient if there were clerical staff that could the clerical work so that teachers could spend all of their time preparing lessons, teaching the kids, and just over-all only doing tasks which directly relate to educating the children.

So I guess the solution to the personhole cover remains unresolved. smile.gif

#21 April

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Posted 23 November 2002 - 11:54 PM

I just had to comment about the police being at the schools and over seeing things.
My son is grown now, but was a teenager going to high school once. The school he was
going to at the time, had some student on student violence problems that many of the
parents were very worried over. There were some kids who came to school with knives
and started fights, that the hall monitors didn’t have the experience to deal with.
Some students were seriously injured in those incidents and I sure wish the police would
have been around at those times. My son was scared to go to school sometimes, and
sometimes he skipped. Again, I wish he had been picked up and taken back to school, but
there were no truant officers to do that then.
Also, my son had a way of twisting the truth about some of the minor trouble he got into.
Since he was my son, I believed his versions of things, when I really should have had a
more unbiased ear. Even though he wasn’t lying, he did paint me a picture that was his
opinion, and left out certain facts. He smoked and I was strongly against it. I kept taking
the cigarettes away, and he kept buying them on the sly. I wish he would have gotten a
fine for having them because it would have come out of his allowance. But at that time,
nobody was really concerned with teenagers smoking and sadly, didn’t enforce the law
against it. I gave my husband a chewing out for his smoking, because I felt it set a bad
example for our son.
(Studies have shown that children are more likely to smoke if one or both of their parents
smoke.) He then took a different view of smoking and has been a non smoker for over 17
years now, for which I am very grateful. And my son has since quit smoking, after an on
and off type habit. When he was a teenager, I once set him down and showed him how
much of his allowance he was throwing away each month, and I think that changed his
attitude about it.
I hadn’t known the police were at the high school here in Folsom, but frankly, I think it’s a
good thing. The students may not appreciate it, but since when did teenagers appreciate
any authority?
It sounds like the officers were acting correctly to escort the boy to his car and to fine him
when he had possession of cigarettes. As far as for being tardy. I don’t think an officer
would spent time giving a lecture to a student, if it was a one time thing. However, I
could be wrong. If the officer felt the student may be hanging around the wrong crowd,
he might have thought she needed a little talking to.
It’s understandable that the kids will resent the police hanging around the school, as it
doesn’t give them the feeling of freedom they had before. They may exaggerate about the
officers behavior towards them, out of resentment because they don’t like them there to
begin with.
But all in all, I’d say with the present day problems at our high schools, you are lucky that
your children go to a school that has police there. I sure wish they had been at my son’s
school, when he was a teenager.
It would have saved me a lot of worry and maybe a few less gray hairs!
I've not had any experience with the police here in Folsom, and hope I don't. But I've not heard anything negative about them being over reactive or slow to arrive at calls.
The police have a hard job as nobody thinks they deserve a ticket or a fine, when they get one. If one takes it personal, they just compound their bad feelings. But there was an old saying back in the 60's, (now I'm dating myself) "If you need help, call a hippie".
I think it's easy to knock the police, but I really appreciate the job they do and wouldn't want to be without them.

#22 (catess)

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Posted 24 November 2002 - 08:45 AM

Well, the most astounding thing about Val's message is the political correctness. It's about time someone started calling them personhole covers! wink.gif Or peoplehole covers (to avoid using "son"). If we called them Gateways to Effluence, you could give the protecting officers a promotion to guard them (Detective in charge of Effluence Gateway protection).

My son skipped classes once to see the Star Wars movie. I found out and contacted the school. The VP lectured him and threatened him with truancy prosecution. They didn't bring in the police, but told him they would "next time." To my knowledge there wasn't a next time. I have always found it helpful to have access to Detective Solgas, who would answer my questions, respond to my concerns, and help me to avoid my child getting into worse trouble. When a parent is at their wit's end, it is nice to have someone who is knowledgeable about teens and what constitutes typical bad behavior, what the potential consequences are, what can be done to stop it, etc. Detective Solgas was there when I needed him. I miss his presence on the campuses, although the rest of my kids are girls, and they don't seem to have the same inclination to get into trouble.



#23 bettyemahan

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Posted 24 November 2002 - 11:20 AM

If anyone knows how to reach Detective Solgas, would you ask him to contact me about "Friends of FL"? Thanks! He can reach me by phone or e-mail. rolleyes.gif

#24 Terry

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Posted 24 November 2002 - 09:02 PM

You would find it very unlikely for any law enforcement agency nowadays to respond to a call for assistance with a single officer. This is for the officers' protection as well as those witnesses, victims and suspects. Folsom has tried very hard to maintain the appropriate ratio of patrol officers to residents. I can't believe that residents would find that something to complain about, unless, of course they have poor driving habits, or other criminal behavior.

Val, maybe your kids' lack of respect for authority is a behavior learned at home. Do you know how many crimes and calls for assistance are made to the Folsom police department? Do you know how quickly they respond to calls? Do you know how much time the average calls takes? Is your opinion that they don't have much to do merely because of their high visibility in the schools? Why not go talk to the Chief of Police and voice your opinions and see if you can get a different view. My opinion is that with the law enforcement presence at the schools, when these kids reach adulthood, they'll appreciate and respect the presence of law enforcement in their own neighborhoods and schools. I've had occasion to deal with Folsom Police Department and each and every individual with whom I've had contact has been professional, concerned, and caring. Of course, my experience has not been on the "suspect" end of any law enforcement matter, so that may be the difference.

Secondly, manhole covers area currently called maintenance hole covers, or maintenance covers, to achieve political correctness.

As far as contacting Detective Solgas, why not try the Folsom Police Department? 355-7230. Really, did that not occur to you, or am I missing something?


#25 valdossjoyce

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Posted 25 November 2002 - 06:53 PM

blink.gif Terry, you rascal, you never cease trying to tick me off. But, I'm just to sweet-natured to fall for it.

Of course I've spoken with the officers! both Terry Solgas and the Chief (whom I know on a first-name basis, and by the way, not because my family's getting in trouble with the law, but because Sam and I move in some of the same social circles..)

And I didn't say anything negative about the officers themselves. They've been professional every time I've met one. My criticism was that we probably have more of them than we really need at the current time, that when there's oversupply of manpower (oops, political correctness,..officerpower), they're going to get stuck doing boring stuff like asking a kid why she wasn't in class.

And no, my daughter does not have a truancy, tardiness or hanging-around-with-a-bad-crowd problem. She's a good kid that's active in youth group at church and plays soccer, among other fine qualities.

And that remark about learning disrespect for authority at home, whoa baby, you're just really taking cheap shots. Did you miss that part of my note where I said I complained to no one, especially my kids, about their incidents because I believe in a UNITED FRONT WITH THE ADULTS WHO ARE AUTHORITY FIGURES for my kids? Apart from a comment made to school staff, the Chief, a few friends, I haven't made a big deal out if this. And the comments I made, until this forum, were very simple. I asked why we needed so many officers on campus.

I have plenty of respect for the law and officers. My husband is retired law enforcement and I'm a member of the Board of the Law Enforcement Chaplaincy.

But we're having so much fun on this forum, Terry, just keep slinging the vitriol, pal, I can take it.

#26 webmaster

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Posted 25 November 2002 - 09:14 PM

Hey everyone, we're getting a little off-topic here... this thread is supposed to be about the sewage/manhole cover situation, and has seemed to migrate to a discussion re: the Folsom Police.

I suggest starting a new thread about this new topic if you care to discuss further. Not only will you get more of an audience, but the original discussion can get back to the right topic!
wink.gif
MyFolsom.Com Message Board Tip #3
To view all new threads in the last 24 hours, Click on "Today's Active Topics" from the forum index.

#27 bettyemahan

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Posted 01 December 2002 - 01:08 PM

Thank you Webmaster! I would like to know what is the truth about the MANHOLE covers, sewer problems, etc.!

(P.S. as to that NEW topic------I thank our lucky stars for our Folsom police officers! I hope the Folsom low crime status continues so that they DO GET BORED!!! My grandson-in-law is a cop and on his new job, down the Bay from SF, wll soon be both a cop and a fireman!)




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