Comments on: Decatur Purchases “Plow” and Makes Tweaks to Procedure in Anticipation of Another Major Snow/Ice Event

By: Wesley Jones

Wesley Jones — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 18:10:51 +0000

I’d have to look it up, but I seem to recall that it is already a requirement for residents (and businesses) to insure their walkways are clear. Most people probably don’t know that, so an education program of some sort would probably be good (if it is actually true).

I was speaking more of the roads and such that the City apparently does not seem to think that anything more than “Nature” and a blade is needed. This is not being proactive, and I’m sure our Downtown business suffered.

By: smalltowngal

smalltowngal — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 21:03:31 +0000

This is all very good stuff, and would be helpful across the metro area. My big whine is always about how the local news & weather coverage chooses sensationalism over actual information that would be useful. If they chose to, they could do a lot to encourage people to use common sense and behave responsibly. Maybe Decatur could lead the public educ effort and also get it deemed newsworthy somehow and get it on local TV.

By: macarolina

macarolina — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 19:26:37 +0000

An inexpensive addition to the snow response plan would be a public education campaign/materials, prepped and ready to be distributed prior to each potential snow event. As is mentioned above and frequently during last year’s snow-in, many business owners and residents just don’t know how to respond to snow on the micro-level. A bullet point memo directed towards businesses and residents highlighting the benefits of timely shoveling/salting/sanding, and post-shovel maintenance might really help the town be more mobile next time, at least on foot. The memo could also outline ways neighbors might be able to collaborate on shoveling a tire path for small side streets (my neighbor started that last time, and it worked great), or other ideas my west-coast self doesn’t know. The memo could be distributed through DM, Patch, DBA and neighborhood listserves, Facebook, etc.
I’m for enjoying nature during one of these beautiful snow events, but it is much easier to enjoy it outside if sidewalks are somewhat passable!
The DBA could join in the public education efforts and have a campaign for every business to purchase and have at the ready a snow shovel or two, plus a list of store-owners that for health reasons would need assistance shoveling their areas of sidewalk.

By: thrownshadows

thrownshadows — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 14:05:36 +0000

A plow blade for the backhoe would certainly be welcome, but I would suggest the city look into removable plows for standard pickup trucks. These are used throughout the north by private contractors for clearing parking lots of businesses. Given our infrequent and small snowfalls, I would think multiple trucks with plows would be the way to go.

By: Wesley Jones

Wesley Jones — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 23:53:01 +0000

I’m not advocating spending a lot of money on snow removal equipment that won’t be used very much. What I am advocating is being proactive like some of the other cities in the Metro area did. I can’t remember the specific suburb, but they saw the weather forecasts, they new it was going to be bad, and they went out and contracted with several companies that did have the proper equipment. As soon as the snow started falling, they we’re out – at night – keeping ahead of the storm. As soon the storm ended, that city had nice clear roads for the rest of the week. This was well reported on the local news stations. Meanwhile, back in Decatur, we just sat around and watched the pretty snow come down, watched it freeze over into solid sheets of ice making it much more difficult to remove, and when the City was asked what the “Grand Plan” for getting the roads cleared so businesses could open up and people could get to work, the answer was, “Oh, we”ll just let nature do it’s thing – weren’t we so lucky it wasn’t worse?.” That is not being proactive, and I don’t think buying a blade Implement is very proactive either, and will not be very effective if we have a repeat of last year’s type storm.