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Monday, February 08, 2010

St. Luke Road

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sheesh,
we shoulda bought
out in the county.
We're downtownish (johnsons lake)and the roads aren't touched at all
We've got rock hard 10" ice ruts with 6" powder over it.
& Damn hard to shovel
Good thing we pay all those extra city taxes ???

Anonymous said...

I can not believe how poorly Wicomico handles road conditions. Westminster received way more snow than us and their side roads are clear. Old Ocean City and Mt Hermon are awful. Guess we are too concerned over the civic center parking lot and funds for that that the basic needs of citizens.

Anonymous said...

I drove in from Laurel to Parsonsburg for work this morning and Rt. 13 was wet but clear until I hit Whitesville Road. The road conditions deteriorated greatly from there. I took the bypass instead of the back roads I usually take thinking it would be safer. Folks, the bypass is in terrible shape too and the exit ramp for 50 West is a sheet of ice all the way across down the entire ramp.
I noticed SEVERAL people out driving in these conditions this morning ON THEIR PHONE!
HANG UP! Your call is NOT that important for you to be risking MY life!
Hobbs Rd. is still bad from 50 over to Old Ocean City Rd. and Old Ocean City Rd to Parsonsburg is not bad until you leave the Salisbury line at Walston Switch Rd. From there it's pretty bad.
Slow down, hang up and take your time!

Sand Box John said...

I have nothing to bitch about. Wicomico County plowed the street in front of my driveway for the first time sense I purchased my house in Hebron in 2004

Anonymous said...

thats Jackson Road right off of St. Lukes Road. I travel it almost every day

Anonymous said...

This picture had to be in Worcester because it is not like that in Wicomico. We have had plows riding around with their blades up 95% of the time. I even seen 5 trucks sitting at a store for 2 hrs. How do I know? It was the same tag #'s and the same Contractors. My Daughter brought that to my attention. That is City, County and State trucks along with the Contractors. We are paying overtime and the Contractors cost for no service at all. Where is the Supervisors? They are riding around when its sunny so I guess they are in the office now thinking what is supposed to be happening.

Anonymous said...

12:17,

Your are incorrect. The county doesn't hire contractors. They can't afford it. I do not believe for a second that a county truck was at a store for 2 hours. Supply the type of truck and tag number. If not, I am afraid I don't believe you. The only reason someone would be driving with their plow up would be if they were passing through someone elses jurisdicion on the way to the area they plow, heading back to the shop for a load of salt, spreading salt (after they pushed what they could from a road), or traveling to aide another truck. This snow was very difficult to plow because of the ice. I was getting stuck in the middle of the road while turning around, simply because I could not get traction. BTW, areas to the north do not get ice like we do here. There temperatures usually stay below the freezing mark which allows for the roads to clean off better. Here, temperatures rise above the freezing mark, which causes the snow to melt, and then that night, it turns to a sheet of ice. No way to get that off. I have family in the Westminster area, so I know what happens there. I guarantee you, all the roads are not clear right now. In fact, I called one of my relatives and confirmed that. She even told me the schools will probably be closed all week. Go figure. I have come to realize, we will never be able to please everyone. We either get screamed at because we fill someones driveway in with snow after they have shoveled out(can't help it), don't push it back far enough, push it back too far, put snow in front of a mailbox, don't salt every road (can't afford it) and the list goes on and on. It is a double edge sword. There are simply too many roads to clear with the resources we have to do it in as fast a manner as some would like to see. The subdivisions take a long time (there are about 100 in the county), the width of most streets require about 4 passes to get the snow to the curb. Everyone wants their culdesacs cleaned out perfectly. This has to be done without blocking the driveways or mailboxes with the mounds of snow. Not too many places to put it. It can't go up, can't go down, pretty much has to go to the right. If we try to go too fast, then the snow comes off the plow too hard and knocks peoples mailboxes off (it is not the plows hitting them as one commenter put in another post, usually). This can even happen when we go slow if the snow is wet. I am glad you all thought it was funny when trucks were in ditches. Didn't care if the driver was hurt or not. This is not necessarily from reckless driving, but just bad luck. These drivers have drove hundreds of miles during this storm, blinded by snow, hitting mounds of snow that move the trucks, and navigating around people who felt like joyriding that should have been off the roads. You can't tell where the edge of the road is, and sometimes can get off a little too far and the shoulders seem to pull you in. Believe me when I tell you that we are trying to to a good job. We aren't wasting money, and are trying to do an efficient job. No one wants the snow gone faster than we do. A little OT might be nice, but after a while, we truly hate the sight of the snow. We are away from our families, miss things like our childrens birthdays (that is hard to replace), superbowl parties, and any number of things that we had planned in life. No, I do not believe we should get a gold star, and it is our job, but how about cutting us a break. I think since the snow began, I have had about 3 meals. One of them was at home. There is alot to be said for the term "silent majority". The silent majority are the friendly faces I see, and the nice comments I hear from people while out doing my job. (not just the snow). It would be awfully hard to go to work everyday if all I heard was the types of comments that I sometimes read on here. The silent majority are the peple that I want to go above and beyond for, not necessarily the "vocal minority" that only has criticism and misconceptions.

Anonymous said...

Hey maybe they would have to fight the ice if they did not ride around with their plows up all day sunday and today making the roads worse

Anonymous said...

7:58, AKA (vocal minority): In case you didn't notice, the ice came overnight Saturday into Sunday. That is after we had all the rain/sleet and the storm started coming out of the northwest and the temps dropped to 20 degrees. That is how it happens here. The ice has been here since. (I am sure you meant wouldn't instead of would, but maybe then again, maybe not)