Sick of snow and ice? Don't expect sympathy from Eric Watson.Watson was the city's new Public Works director when Mayor Mark Fury took office in 1994. He recalled Monday how snow fell the day the mayor was sworn in and then it just didn't stop.
The new administration seventeen years ago soon found itself coping with a run of 17 storms that wreaked havoc in all kinds of ways. There was not enough money or equipment on hand to deal with the mountains of snow and thick sheets of ice. The Plainfield Public Library had to close for a week due to leaks from accumulated ice on its flat roof. Angry homeowners came after Public Works trucks with bats after plows blocked their driveways. The city had to rent a big front end loader to clear streets and parking lots of snow.
David Ervin was also a Public Works official at the time and recalls it as the new administration's "trial by fire."
"After eight or nine storms, we finally kind of got it," Ervin said.
A projected cost of $15,000 for salaries and the same for expenses to remove snow in February 1994 mounted to $63,000 and $47,000, respectively.
Currently, the city still has the dregs of the Dec. 26 blizzard in grimy piles around town that successive storms have briefly dusted over with a short-lived mantle of white. More snow is expected this week, with a snow/sleet mix forecast for Wednesday. News articles are quoting the gripes of weary shovelers and giving remedies for cabin fever.
Although Watson and Ervin could laugh now as they recalled the challenge they faced in 1994, Ervin said, "I think we're on record to repeat it."Watson soon moved on to become executive director of the Plainfield Municipal Utilities Authority and Ervin joined him as assistant executive director. City officials recently suggested that PMUA could help out with snow removal by putting plows on its solid waste trucks, but Watson said the trucks could not be fitted out to push snow and anyway they are leased. In addition, he said, if the authority took on a city responsibility, it could cause a "major grievance" for the Division of Public Works.
Meanwhile, with many weeks of winter yet to go, residents are complaining this year that they just can't deal with another storm.
Ervin's response? "Been there, done that."
--Bernice
I will say this...it amazes me that the city DPW doesn't take advantage of the "down time" between storms to actively engage in removal of snow by curbs, snowbanks in lots etc....the city streets and lots don't get cleaned up by themselves until mother nature decides it...
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