During the last storm, the City of Salisbury Public Works piled snow from the Plaza Parking Lot directly up against the building at Parker Place. Once it started melting the snow/water started filling up the basement and caused quite an unexpected mess.
I would like to know why the newly-hired Director of Public Works has not been canned. Her handling of the snow removal should have been enough to have her ousted. Try to ride down almost any side street of Salisbury, and you will be taking your life--or at least the life of your vehicle--in your own hands. Plows did not touch these streets, and now the ice built up underneath cannot be removed.
ReplyDeleteWhile maybe the buck stops with Mayor Ireton, it is his Director of Public Works whose job it is to deal with these kinds of emergencies.
I've heard all sorts of excuses: The Department is understaffed and underfinanced, the plows are too large for side streets, yada, yada, yada. Yes, the amount of snowfall is very unusual for this area and, yes, we don't have the equipment that, say, a town in Minnesota might have, but those in charge could have done a much better job.
What about the county roads? How are they making out? Just curious.
ReplyDelete10:24 It is difficult to clear city streets as melting ice has no where to go but in frozen storm drains. Even if ice and slush could be pushed the only thing accomplished is piling it on sidewalks or against curbing. Vehicles riding over the ice and snow packs it down and any melting during the day refreezes at night. Do you have any suggestions for clearing the streets faster?
ReplyDeleteTake lots of pictures and document the damages well, you will need to contact them for replacement items... Oh but wait, its your fault becasue you didn't clean the snow off the sidewalk and against the building yourself... That's what they will say I bet...
ReplyDeletesounds to me like the building owner needs to make some repairs. what should the city of done with the snow?
ReplyDeleteThe city side streets are ridiculous! Why didn't the city at least put salt down?
ReplyDeletehow about that problem is, is that if you work for company that has the word "public" in it you probally are unemployable in the real world. We all know this is 99.987% fact. If your one of the small minority of folks who have a government job and are auctually good at what you do, you need to go get a real job and do better for yourself and family.
ReplyDelete10:24
ReplyDeleteI'm sure you're just the person to be in charge.
The downtown is right by the river, the city should dump the snow in the river. That is how areas that get alot of snow deal with it. It is not the owners fault, the city doesn't have the right to pile snow on privite property.
ReplyDeleteIF people, public works, woould just take PRIDE in their job. There would be a large difference.
ReplyDeleteWhen we had the big snow in the 70's all the snow was hauled down to the river. Cant be any worse than what is already in it!
ReplyDelete10:57, since my (10:24) field of expertise is education and not public works , I don't have the answers. That's why we pay the big bucks to those who supposedly do. One idea that some cities are using: Plow the streets and put the snow into a dump truck to be hauled away. The snow could be dumped into a large unused lot or field (for example, the Dresser property if permission were obtained). 1:41 had another feasible solution: Dump some of the snow into the river.
ReplyDelete12:40, I'm not the person who should be in charge, but could I, or you, have been any worse?
3:19 SU would never allow anyone to dump snow onto their property. They are taking great pride in knowing they got it. The snow should be taken to the old Mall location. Nothing else is being done with that place for the moment.
ReplyDeleteI take exception with some of the comments on here. I have worked for the county (proudly) for 12 years. I have shed blood, sweat, tears, and broken bones trying to give 110% EVERY day as a public servant. I am not alone in my desire to do a good job, the vast majority of my coworkers share this ethic. We were faced with a very difficult task that was a no win situation. All we could do was the best we could do. Do you realize that we have less than 25 cdl drivers at the roads? How are we supposed to maintain 750 miles of roads, and do it to the satisfaction of 40,000 people? We can't. I am sorry D. Nock, that you feel the way you do, but the fact is you are completely wrong. You will have a hard time finding more qualified people than we have here at the roads in the private sector, job for job. I know of fellow employees, myself included, that have been offered positions in the private sector. We have stayed, although sometimes I have to wonder why. It becomes increasingly difficult to care about you job, when all we here from people like you is criticism. Once again, I am sorry you feel the way you do, but you couldn't be more wrong.
ReplyDeleteR. Lee Outen
seriously who in the hell would ever even think to know that the snow melting on the sidewalk was going to leak into the building when the outside of a building is its shell to protect its inside.Sounds like the place probably deals with leaks in the foundation or whatever in the rain also probably.But yes they could take the snow to the old mall's parking lot but it probably would cost the city $300,000 per dump there.And by the way this was the worst snow-storm that has happened in some time,BUT,its not the only snow that has ever been plowed on that sidewalk and left to melt before either now is it
ReplyDeleteThis stuff would have been taken cate of if John Jacobs were still in charge.
ReplyDelete1st and foremost, person, should not park on city streets during this type of weather, each house has a parking space or two... most people pull their vechicles out from alleys and park on city streets, then wait days to remove or dig their vechiles out.... over where i lived my cross streets had more vechiles parked on the street then normal, so no any city side street has not been plowed.....
ReplyDeleteway to go R.Lee Outen! agreed 210%!!!
ReplyDeleteJohn Jacobs, yeah right. What a joke he was.
ReplyDeleteMr. Outen:
ReplyDeleteMy, aren't we on the defensive! The comments here are not directed to the county public works but, rather, to the CITY Public Works. Of course, I don't think anyone would give an "A" to the county for its handling of snow removal, but you surely did much better than the city. If John Jacobs couldn't have handled the task--though I believe that he could, 7:02--Barrie Tilghman could have for sure. Say what you want about her, and she has had a lot said about her, but heads would have rolled for the abysmal job--or, more accurately, non-job-- done on city streets. I wonder if those responsible for this debacle ever took the time to ride on these streets. Go ahead, try Middle Blvd. for example!
"The downtown is right by the river, the city should dump the snow in the river."
ReplyDeleteDo you know if this is even LEGAL? The EPA has a regulation for EVERYTHING!
The snow, ice, etc... on roadways is very, very dirty. Oil, dust from brakes, trash, etc... would be in any mass of snow moved from the road to the river. How could Mayor Jim "I'm going to clean up the River" Ireton *EVER* sign off on such a thing even if it were legal?
Read D. Nicks comment again carefully. It is aimed at anyone in public sector. Also, it is not just this post that spurred my comment. I have read similar comments throughout the posts. Mr. Nock was able to speak his view,
ReplyDeleteI spoke mine.
R. Lee Outen