Calls to the City of Brownsville Public Works Department have not produced answers to the basic questions about the cost of repairs to Pablo Kisel Boulevard. When I called Monday afternoon, however, an unnamed woman told me that Mr. Santiago Navarro had “left a message for you,” she said. “He’s going to get with you tomorrow.” That was Monday. This is Saturday.

I called Tuesday and actually spoke to Mr. Navarro. He wanted to know why I wanted to know about this matter. I said I was a citizen and lived close to Pablo Kisel and had traveled it just about every day since it had been opened and had observed that it had been under almost constant repair since it’s opening. I mentioned the previously described sewage smells coming from street drains which also had caused me concern since its opening. It did not seem right to me that the city should be spending as much as it obviously is spending on a relatively new street.

Frankly, I was perplexed by the question. I’m a citizen and taxpayer and I want to know how much is being spent on a public project. Why should there be any question as to why I want to know about this. If things are right, we should be on the same side–the city needs good streets that are well built and well maintained at reasonable cost.

So yesterday, after gym time in the afternoon, looking greasy and disheveled and perhaps being mildly odorific, I imagine, I showed up at the Public Works office. It’s a confusing complex, not meant for dealing with the public. The buildings are a hodgepodge obviously the result of accretion rather than plan. The front office, so to speak, is in the back of the lot, blocks behind one of very few signs on the grounds saying, in this case, “Authorized Vehicles Only Beyond This Point.” I had stopped at the only one-storied building on the safe side of this sign where a friendly crew supervisor told me that the “main street” of the complex was open to the public, so not to worry. Back I went.

It’s a friendly place, when you find it, but currently there is no director and there seems to be some confusion as to who does what. I had emailed my questions to Lourdes Villanueva last week (or was it the week before?) and after some calling back to this office and that, was ushered into a comfortably decorated office where she assured me that she had emailed my concerns to Mr. Navarro and that he was gong to email me answers. Probably Monday.

The wheels of governance grind slow and exceedingly fine, I suppose, to adapt an old saw on the topic. So Monday’s the day.

We wait patiently.