Belleville DPW workers overwhelmed with number of funerals

Belleville City employees say there were more funerals last week than they’ve ever seen as more people are moving freely about the state and country.
City Manager Tracey Schultz Kobylarz said in the seven months she’s been in Belleville, they never had the number of funerals as they had last week alone.
“It’s overwhelming,” she told the city council at Monday’s Zoom meeting.
Department of Public Works Director Rick Rutherford said his crew has updated more than 120 remote water readers that are failing because of age. They are working on the meters when they aren’t doing funerals.
When asked about progress on the sidewalk project, Rutherford said the immediate work was taken care of, but he had to push concrete delivery back three times because of the funerals. Some jobs are ready to be poured.
He said next year, the city needs to hire contractors to do the sidewalks because of all the work the city’s small staff has to do.