Winter 2004 Edition     

Snow Plowing   Photos from outside and inside the truck, courtesy of Ron Lottermann   In response to some snide comments about borough employees and snow plowing on Fair Lawn's Discussion Forum, Ron Lottermann, Fair Lawn's Recycling Coordinator, wrote the following:   - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  Unfortunately for the Borough, snow does not only fall during the employee's work day. It also falls on weekends and holidays.   Some information regarding plowing that you might not be aware of:  - You need at least 3 inches of snow on the ground before you can start plowing. - It takes roughly 9 hours on an average storm to clear the streets curb to curb. Since the employees work an 8 hour shift, it will always require some overtime. If you have a large storm, like last February's 17 inches, it takes longer. - It is extremely hard to plow during rush hour. There are too many cars on the road and most are just annoyed that we are in the way of them getting home. This creates dangerous driving around us, which is not a good situation under any circumstances. - Cars parking in the street while we are plowing the streets creates a big problem. Cars are blocked in with the piles of snow creating angry phone calls from residents, streets are not opened curb to curb creating traffic and parking problems and on dead ends and cul-de-sacs, it makes it nearly impossible to properly clear the street if we can even get down the street. - The County Roads are done first. I believe that includes River Road. There are many circumstances that contribute to the roads being icy / snowy, even though they may have been plowed properly. - Many young drivers don't seem to understand is that even though the road has been plowed, it is still slippery. You can't drive 40 in a 35 on a slippery road and not expect to slide.   - Generally in the course of a storm, we do all streets twice. We always try to go curb to curb. The problem with the driveways is that people feel they must shovel out immediately, so they don't let us finish plowing and they shovel / blow the snow back into the street. This creates a problem with the road freezing and/or becoming slippery. That causes us to have to go back out and plow the street again and subsequently plowing in driveways again.   - The plow is designed to push the snow, not pick it up and carry it away.   - While the overtime money can be nice, we call it blood money. There are times when the employees are working 24 hours or more due to the snow. Last Christmas the employees left the dinner table and time with their families to come into work to plow. My time with my family at the holiday is worth more than the overtime.   - When it is snowing and you have to drive around, put your headlights on.  Besides being the law, it helps the snow plow operators see you! - When you see a snow plow actively plowing, do not tailgate or cut it off. NEVER go behind a plow that is backing up. - Remember that it takes longer for a plow to stop and when the plow is down on the ground, it is very difficult to steer.   I hope this helps you and others understand that there are a lot of issues involved in snow plowing and it is not black and white.   (See Snow Plowing and Salting Procedure, for more information). If you feel that you can improve the plowing operations, I urge you to call the Department of Public Works at 201-794-5304 or 5326. If you want to talk to me directly, you can reach me at 201-794-5366 or via e-mail at recycling@fairlawn.org.