Review Of Last Season's Snow Removal

As a citizen of this city, the thought of improvement of city services along with the cost containment certainly is in the forefront. Living in a utopia would be desired, but reality quickly comes to light. In regards to one aspect of evaluation, snow removal always comes to mind (in the winter). Unless one is involved with these services, a complete and thorough assessment can’t truly be completed. Without traveling the entire city completely, on a constant basis, one must say that the Service Department did a superior job of snow removal. Granted each side street may not have been completed in a fashion that each of us would like, but that is not possible unless there would be a truck for each street and that would be economic suicide, unless you would care for much higher taxes. If you can’t negotiate the side street in a little snow, chances are you shouldn’t be driving anyhow. Just look at the difficulties that are had with home owners clearing their own walks. Now clear the city streets with the same competency, not as easy as you may have thought. So, a hearty well done to the Service Department.         

This brings us to the next step, residential snow removal. Based on my observation this area is sorely lacking, to put it mildly. Last winter was not the most pleasant for pedestrians. Along with chilling temperatures, there was quite a snow accumulation. Without residents and businesses clearing snow, more than just the drives, it made walking difficult. This shows, at least, a lack of concern for fellow citizens. 

There are checks in place to assure residential clearings, however these checks were not implemented for some reason. There were walks that were not cleared from the first snow to the last. Some of the accumulation was knee high. When snow is not removed, the other option is to walk in the street, a good option because the streets are cleared. However, there is one drawback - traffic. Are we to conclude that the Building Department, which oversees residential snow removal, doesn’t think that the safety of the citizens is important? 

There is no familiarity with the accomplishments of the Building Department. However, there is clear evidence of what is not accomplished. Perhaps they are too busy or perhaps pedestrian safety is not a concern. In either case, the department heads (building commissioner, also head of the Engineering Department, and the assistant building commissioner who, to my understanding, makes these decisions because the engineering head is too occupied), are clearly lacking, but we’ll get you for not cutting your grass. Here is an instance where a civilian review board could have had influence to recommend solutions to this lack of competence. The Building Department heads (commissioners) not only were lax this past year, but have a long history (years) of documented neglect to the citizens. One year of lack of attention could be simply oversight, two years of lack of attention could be inattentiveness, three years of this lack of attention could be incompetence. What would you consider longer periods of this inattentiveness? Does merely sending a letter to the offenders constitute job performance without a follow-up: just a created waste of stamps and employee time. Why would this lack of action be tolerated? Could it be Peter’s Principle in action. One last why; why are so many administrators residing in other cities? Could it be because that they know how tasks are performed here?  Possibly the Mayor could answer these questions.

Leo Lampeter

Retired. Looking to create controversy.

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Volume 6, Issue 11, Posted 10:42 AM, 11.03.2014