I’m a sports fan but not a sports fanatic. I love baseball and football. I feel so-so about basketball. I will watch hockey if nothing else is on and have a passing interest in tennis. To me, televised soccer and golf matches are used to either anesthetize surgical patients or to torture terrorists still being held at Guantanamo. Whatever your sport, you have to play the whole game.
In a recent NFL wild card contest, the Los Angeles Chargers were leading the Jacksonville Jaguars by 27 points and lost 30-31. The Chargers played a great first half and while they did take the field in the second half, they didn’t really play the game. We’ve had a similar situation with snow removal in the City of Mitchell.
I served on the Mitchell City Council for nine years. Citizens do want their city leaders to be frugal with their tax dollars. However, there are times when city dwellers don’t thank you for saving money and times when they don’t punish politicians for spending more money either. Nathan Powell used to head the Parks Department and I recall a summer City Council meeting where he was crowing about saving $15,000 on mosquito spraying. People don’t thank you for saving money by allowing mosquitoes to live, breed and to plague outdoor summer activities to say nothing of spreading Lyme and other diseases. Likewise, people don’t mind if officials spend extra money on plowing, especially when we’ve had snow like we’ve had so far this winter.
When Ron Olson was in charge of the Street Department, the streets were plowed quickly and pristinely. In part because money was no object. Clean streets plowed quickly curb to curb was an expectation in Mitchell and one that used to be consistently met. That’s part of today’s issue, many of us remember the “good old days” of completely cleared streets, plowed curb to curb. Since Ron retired, the green eyeshades and bean counters have come out in force with a sincere attempt to save the taxpayer some money. A noble but misguided attempt at fiscal responsibility, in my opinion.
The City and the plow drivers have done a yeoman’s job of dealing with the recent blizzard bringing two feet of snow. In other words, they had a good first half. The fly in the buttermilk is their second half has been abysmal.
Some streets like Havens and Sanborn are excellent with all lanes available for use by traffic. I work at KMIT on the bypass here in Mitchell. If I take 3rd Street west, which runs right in front of my house, I can connect to the bypass and just up the hill is KMIT. On Martin Luther King Day (January 16th) I tried to get to work using 3rd Street. Third Street is a one-way headed west at that point and two blocks beyond Minnesota Avenue there were two cars parked, parked properly and as close to the drifts as they could. The problem is they were parked on opposite sides of the street (north and south) right across from each other. I had to turn around, there was not enough room to pass between them. I’ve been down many other streets in town that are also one lane, so traffic relies on patience and courtesy since there isn’t enough room for parked cars and oncoming vehicles to simultaneously use the street. Heaven help you if you try to navigate these streets on garbage day, with all the trash cans lining the road in addition to the parked cars, lanes narrowed by partially plowed streets and oncoming traffic.
I live on a corner and cleared acres of sidewalk after the big storm, including a walkway to the street in front of my home for the delivery people. I also shoveled five feet of street. That’s because if I stopped shoveling after I cleared my sidewalk to the street, there is five feet of snow extending into the street that hasn’t been plowed away. Third and many other streets have not been plowed “curb to curb” or anything even close to it.
I understand the challenges of blizzards, physical limitations of plow drivers, safety considerations during storms etc. However, if other roads (i.e., Sanborn) can be cleaned further after a storm, why not the whole City eventually as well?
There have been criticisms in the Daily Republic and around town about some City plowing practices. I’d like to address some of those relying on my experiences from my time on the City Council.
To begin with, the City has been criticized for cleaning its own properties (i.e., the Rec Center and public parking lots) first. When you clear snow, you do your own property before assisting your neighbors don’t you? The City has a method to its madness as well. Clearing City parking lots gives citizens, like the people who live right next door to me, who only have on street parking, an alternative place to put their vehicles to get them off the streets for the plows – always assuming one can get to those cleared lots over snow covered streets. In addition to that, you know people will huff and puff about the injustice of private citizens having to clean their property of snow in a timely fashion and then point to the City if they haven’t cleared their property of snow first. That’s what happened in the debate over sidewalk installation, the same would be true for snow removal. That’s why the City clears their property first.
There has been isolated condemnation of “snowplow drivers” by some citizens. First, “snowplow drivers” are City employees who do other full-time jobs when they’re not plowing snow. So, it’s not like the City has specific people just sitting around waiting for a storm and that’s all they do. Second, the number of people qualified to run those plows is limited, the plows go only so fast, move only so much snow in a set period of time and everyone in town wants their street done first and completely.
Some folks have complained about the emergency routes being done first and east-west streets always taking precedence. There are two reasons for this, the first is practical and necessary while the second is archaic. The hospital lies on the corner of 5th and Foster. To get to the hospital one must go east or west, depending on where you are in the City. If you had a heart attack or some other medical emergency and the City prioritized north-south streets like Wisconsin instead, your surviving family members would wonder why routes to the hospital and roads from the firehouse and police station weren’t plowed first over a residential street relatively few people live on. If the hospital ever changes location and is adjacent to the Grasslands medical center for example, I would expect that north-south streets would gain priority using the same rationale for plowing east-west streets first now. The second reason for plowing east-west streets first goes back to the Cold War and a fear of atomic attack. Routes out of the City in the case of a nuclear war or civil disaster are east-west streets. An unlikely event I agree, but one never knows.
A recent letter to the editor addressed eight-hour days and overtime pay for snowplow drivers. Snowplow drivers don’t work eight-hour day usually, they work more. In the last storm they were working fifteen and more hours at a time. Again, there is a limit to the number of hours a person can physically put in and when people are driving big pieces of equipment like a plow – exhaustion may be a recipe for property damage (a destroyed vehicle or a house at an intersection getting run into) or injury and perhaps death for an overly fatigued driver. I do agree though that folks don’t mind paying a little extra in taxes to have streets plowed quickly and cleanly truly curb to curb.
The City did a great job in facing the immediate crisis of being dumped on by Mother Nature. For the initial response, as a former teacher, I give the City a grade of A. However, the City gets a grade of D for the aftermath of the storm. Simply clearing a few major routes curb to curb is unacceptable. Not clearing every street curb to curb immediately following the storm is understandable but already some streets are just a single lane, practically speaking.
While we’re on the subject, when it warms up and the streets are slush – run a plow over them at that time too before the slush freezes into a slalom track for traffic when it cools down again. There are functions of government people don’t mind paying money for and times when citizens want city officials to spend money. Plowed streets are not only an item of convenience and a means of conveyance but also are important to public safety, morale and public opinion.
Finally, after weeks of doing nothing for streets that aren’t main thoroughfares or emergency routes the City is going to begin to clear other streets. Starting on Monday, January 23, the City will take the next two weeks to do what they should have started doing two weeks ago (the big snow started on Tuesday, January 3rd). The City will work on Burr St. east on 1st Ave and 7th Ave then move to the west side of Main and Sanborn and from 1st to 7th Avenue and then from Sanborn to Minnesota between 1st and 7th Ave. Cars will need to be off the streets by 7am. You can sign up for text alerts at cityofmitchell.org
Folks across the political spectrum may disagree about the core functions of government. However, I think we all concur that plowing the streets completely and effectively is one of them. It is vital for public safety, access to emergency services and for smooth operation of the economy that we have functioning and passable roads. The City initially lived up to its obligation in the immediate aftermath of the storm and then failed for weeks. I welcome the clean-up that the City is beginning but why do citizens have to complain, protest, whine, moan and get angry with city officials before there is any action on something that should be done automatically and routinely!?!