TOUGH BREAK

Most of the sidewalks of Nantucket, when there are any, are hand laid bricks over compacted earth. Not only does this lend a historical feel to the island, it makes repairs to their aged infrastructure easier. This sewer line break on Straight Wharf ( you can see the hole in the cast iron pipe in the center of the picture) was repaired by removing the brick pavers, digging a hole, repairing the pipe, refilling and compacting the dirt, and then replacing the bricks. It was done in one day. There is no evidence that there was ever a problem if you walk over this spot. Not everything on this island moves this fast. Sometimes it seems that the ice age is still upon us and that glaciers are racing by. But this is justification for doing this kind of paving whenever there might be a need to go back into the ground to repair something.

Politically speaking, please note the complete absence of Mexicans at this job site. We could actually do our own brick paving and lawn maintenance if the Southern Border of the US were somehow to be magically controlled and DO NOT need illegal immigration to do the jobs Americans wont do. Also note that this is a Union job, not just because we are in Massachusetts, but because on the 5-man crew, only two work at a time (look at the bench in the rear of the photo.) This is an improvement on the good old days of the WPA in which the question was asked "How many men does it take to mow a lawn?" Answer: "Eight. Two are coming, two are going, two are peeing, and two are mowing."