Parkman Triangle Hits Pay Dirt!
Mar 05, 2010
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Well, actually it was free dirt. It's been an eye-opening experience working on the Parkman Triangle Project. I've spent many hours this month calling contractors, from trucking companies to landscapers to plumbers to dirt companies. What money we have really needs to go to plumbing, so to save about $2500, we decided to see what we could scrounge up from contractors who are working on projects and need to dump their dirt.I spent a mad dash on the phones yesterday calling folks that our lead architect, John Southern, had passed on to me. Everyone was very helpful, and told me that they'd dial up friends and peers who were working on projects . . . so if we got a call, we'd better get ready!
The plan was to get on the phones, network, add some content on my side, and walk the shih-tzu when I got a call from a contractor, Eddie, working on a hillside project in Echo Park! I could barely hear him . . . "We have one or two truckloads of dirt! We can dump it now!"By the time I threw on my clothes and grabbed the work gloves, the fellow, Eddie, called me again . . . and the magic was waiting, a block away.
I never thought I'd get so excited at the sight of a dump truck!
Turns out, Eddie had three loads of dirt. We need about 8 truckloads, so this will help out a lot. But it was just John and me, so this morning was spent shoveling, shoveling, and shoveling, with the occasional crossing guard duty to halt traffic as the worker returned with another load of dirt.
It turns out that the contractor many not necessarily save money by diverting this waste from a dump, but it saves him time so he can continue the project. For thinking of us when he's busy trying to get his work done, we're grateful to Eddie.
Eddie was referred to us by a fellow at a trucking company who couldn't help us but got on the horn. He didn't want his name mentioned, but we also want to thank this random chap out there who took the time out of his schedule (at the risk of irritating his boss!) to help us hit with our project, which will give our part of Silver Lake much needed green space.
We'll be working on this over the weekend and the following weekend, too. A call for volunteers may come out shortly. Follow us on Facebook if you think you can join us!
And here's a clip of PT getting its new foundation . . .
