A Brentwood resident unhappy with how residential streets were cleared of snow Wednesday morning emailed 40 South News about it.
Brentwood city administrator, Bola Akande said in an email to 40 South News there were no difficulties.
“The city has an A Crew and B Crew with 11 and 12 employees working 12-hour shifts. There are a total of seven trucks being used to plow the snow. Each truck has a set route they clear. The city’s priority has always been to clear city streets and parking lots of public buildings (city hall, community center, fire station, police building and the post office). After which, we clear trails and sidewalks along Brentwood Boulevard.”
Akande wanted to remind Brentwood residents to park in driveways when heavy snow or icy conditions are predicted, and to help avoid being plowed in, driveway snow should be thrown into the street just past the driveway entrance.
Maplewood director of public works, Anthony Traxler replied only that things went well Wednesday morning.
“If you like how the streets were plowed, that’s our protocol!” he said.
Amidst all the headline grabbing attention of outsourcing, lack of transparency, good ol’boys club mentality, innuendos and threats, I have one simple question that impacted me on my drive to work today……What was the reason behind the Community Center being plowed and cleaned (totally, down to the asphalt & striped lines) at 8 am this morning, and the streets of our residential neighborhoods still looking untouched? Yes, I did see a City Truck driving down High School Drive in the 8 am hour salting, but really? Seriously – snowpacked and unplowed???
Was City Hall worried that with the school closings the Rink would be inundated with skaters? That walking through a snowy parking lot was unsafe and a liability to the City? That it was more critical to get the parking lot plowed than Litzsinger, or High School Drive? Absurd! Where were the priorities? The streets should be the number one priority — then the parking lots! And no, I do not live on High School Drive or Litzsinger, but if the ‘major’ streets of our community cannot be cleaned, why do we own plows?
May God bless Willie Wright’s soul – when he was with the City, he took pride in keeping the streets clean and safe for our residents.