Musings: After the storm ends, the mess begins
A plow clears Main Street in Huntington during Jan. 25 snowstorm. Credit: Kathy M. Helgeson
I agree with the law that requires property owners to clear snow from their sidewalks. However, around my area, it never fails that the Town of Hempstead plows literally race up and down the streets throwing snow over the sidewalks and halfway up my front lawn and driveway. This happens all the time.
We were not home during the latest snowstorm, but I paid someone to shovel my property as soon as the storm ended that Sunday night. Unfortunately, it was before the town plows cleared the snow. When we got home on Tuesday night, our entire sidewalk was covered in mounds of icy snow.
Before property owners are fined, I wish our streets were plowed at a slower speed so snow and ice are not thrown onto previously cleared sidewalks and driveways.
— Mary Ann Demmett, Bellmore
Bus stops aren’t the only places still blocked by snow. There are many roadways and sidewalks where snow was not cleaned off all lanes, causing vehicles to back up into a single lane. In some instances, payloaders and other equipment were sitting nearby.
Since it has been many years since Long Island received regular snowfalls, do municipalities no longer know how to fully properly clean up after a big snowfall? After the initial clearing, in the following days it is critical to do cleanup work since there could be more snow coming within a week or so.
The risk of incomplete cleanup could lead to traveling paralysis, resulting in accidents and delays affecting emergency response times.
— Michael Sullivan, Garden City
Are we the people unimportant to our local governments — except for paying our tax money? As I write this two weeks after the big snowstorm, bus enclosures are full of snow — actually, the snow was plowed into them.
On Route 25A, Nassau County’s Glen Cove Road and Suffolk County’s Route 347, no secondary cleanup seemed to have been done. Working people and students have little, if any, public transportation access. And fire hydrants are buried in plowed snow. It’s a danger when there’s a big fire.
Both counties are equally responsible. Perhaps we can scale back on Nassau’s militia to pay for quality of life issues.
— Debra Hesse, Huntington
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