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W W W . F O R W A R D J A N E S V I L L E . C O M
I recently parked on the upper level of the City parking ramp on North Parker Drive. Walking to the
staircase by the elevator, I observed a remarkable, nasty, super-sized spider web. I don’t know much
about how long it takes spiders to create a superweb like this but my guess is this didn’t appear
overnight. What I do know is many people won’t even go near a web like this.
More to the theme of this column, most people would see it and wonder how our City maintenance
personnel could miss something as imposing and impressive as this colossal cobweb. I pulled out my
smart phone and snapped a photo of the web. A quick search of the City of Janesville’s website did
not lead me to a contact for who might be responsible for maintenance of the parking ramp, so I
decided to send the picture directly to City Manager Mark Frietag and inquire about who within the
City is responsible for maintenance of the parking ramp.
After I sent the email I started to second guess what I had done. Would Mark roll his eyes when he
opened my email and think to himself, “I’m trying to run a $111 million enterprise called the City of
Janesville and Beckord wants me to take care of a cobweb?” I can only imagine the volume and
variety of requests and complaints that Mark Frietag receives on a daily basis.
In less than an hour, I received a reply from Mark. He thanked me for alerting him to the problem and
indicated he would have the appropriate department take care of it. He added that having a picture
attached was very helpful to understanding just how big the problem was. But then he added a
thought that helped me understand how committed he is to improving the community. He wrote, “We
need 65,000 residents to be scouts who let us know when something is wrong, when something is not
properly maintained or in need of some attention.”
At this point you might be thinking I just burned through three minutes of your life writing about a
cobweb. But the real underlying topic here is taking pride in your community. Every time we pick up
litter or volunteer for a community clean-up day we are showing our pride. Every time we challenge
impulsively negative people who bash the community online we are showing our pride. And now City
Manager Mark Frietag would like all of us to show our pride by becoming scouts for the City.
It’s a little thing. But 65,000 little things add up to something meaningful. If you see something that you
want to bring to the attention of City staff, send a photo and a note to
freitag@ci.janesville.wi.usor go
to the City’s service request webpage at
www.ci.janesville.wi.us/servicerequest.JOHN BECKORD
- PRESIDENT, FORWARD JANESVILLE
Consider becoming one of
65,000 resident scouts