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Got trouble? They'll fix it Special Medford public works crew responds to calls Photo by Steve Johnson Dennis Bobo of the Medford Public Works Department's Quick Response Team trims tree branches away from a stop sign on Murphy Road in east Medford Monday. By JIM DAVIS Dennis Bobo heads the pothole patrol nearly every day in Medford. Or he's a tree trimmer, a cat saver or just a guy in a hard hat shoveling spilled concrete out of the road. His job description depends upon the next call. "I could be cleaning up raw sewage in the street one moment, and the next I'll be fixing a downed sign," Bobo said. Bobo and co-worker Steve Williams make up a team in the city's public works department that takes care of the niggling little problems that infuriate Medford residents. As the city's Quick Response Team, Bobo and Williams are the first to respond to nearly all public calls, from potholes to broken signs to cleaning up after wrecks. They assess the situation and fix it if they can. "They're kind of the infrastructure police," said Wayne Pace, operations manager for the public works department. "They go out and make sure the things that cause grief and grievance to the public get taken care of. "That's their sole purpose." The team was set up more than two years ago to be the eyes and the ears of the public works department. When the city was smaller, crews would take care of citizen complaints when they had time between street projects. "It could be a couple of days or a couple of weeks," Pace said. About two or three years ago, the Medford City Council emphasized becoming more "customer-oriented," Pace said. He came up with the quick-response idea based on a program in Seattle. The department saw citizen calls increase from 35 to 50 a month to nearly 400 in the first month or two. Pace said he thinks the department was getting the calls before, but most of them weren't being documented. He also thinks the public is coming to expect more from the public works department. Most of the team's calls are mundane -- pothole complaints or traffic hazards. But the crew also has spent time on more oddball assignments. They've chased remote-controlled cars driven into storm drains. The occasional stray cat gets stuck inside the storm drains, yowling until a neighbor calls public works. Team members are the ones who put poison in the sewers for rats. "Rats do in fact come up the toilets and bathrooms," Bobo said. And then there's the unusual case of the pig guts. Someone found the innards in a Dumpster outside a west Medford store and thought it could be human remains, Bobo said. Police detectives arrived, placed the guts into plastic bags and then determined that the remains were in fact porcine. In came the Quick Response Team to cart away the mess. But the team's primary mission is the streets, said Don Forsyth, a 20-year city worker who was on the team until several months ago. "It gets the traffic flowing," Forsyth said. "And you know in this town that is the big issue." If it's a pothole, the team will pour a little temporary asphalt into the hole until it can be fixed permanently. If a stop sign is being blocked by tree limbs, the team will cut the limbs or assign other city crews to the task. The team also goes out to spills of diesel or paint or concrete or any other problem in the city's right of way. One of the duties of the team is to clean up after accidents -- a job that used to be the domain of tow truck drivers and street sweepers when they had time. "We'll clear anything out of the right of way," Bobo said. "If it's glass, blood, oil or diesel, we'll take care of it." Pace said the team's mission is to respond to citizens, the customers of the city. "It may not be, in the scheme of things, that important to us," Pace said. "But to that neighbor or resident, it's the most important thing of their day." People can reach the Quick Response Team at 774-2600. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA