Township To Residents: Please Be Patient About Snow Plowing

Township Manager Robert Vornlocker said crews are working overtime to clear the streets of snow.

Township officials have one request for residents concerned about snow plowing after the weekend storm: Please be patient.

Crews from the township Department of Public Works and hired contractors have been plowing the township’s more than 800 streets since the storm began, officials said. But, they admitted, some mistakes were made.

Independent contractors hired by the township missed 11 streets, said Mayor Phil Kramer.

“In all, the DPW did a good job,” Kramer said at the Jan. 26 Township Council meeting. “There is room for improvement, and we will be making improvements.”

Kramer said that he rode along on a plow for a while, and said that the job is stressful and tiring.

“It’s hours and hours of driving in a snowstorm, leaning forward till your back aches and driving as close to cars and mailboxes as you can without hitting them,” he said.

Township Manager Robert Vornlocker, responding to one resident’s complaint that his street was missed, said date township is “still in snow plowing operations.”

“We missed your street, and I apologize,” Vornlocker said.

Noting that the weekend storm was “record-setting,” Vornlocker said that “not all streets are fully plowed.”

“Crews are out on overtime right now,” he said.

“If your street isn’t plowed, you need to call public works,” he said. “If you can;t get through to them, call me.”

“We’re going to work to get the snow cleared, all I ask for is your patience,” Vornlocker said.

If mailboxes on township streets are broken by the plows, the township will replace them after the snow has melted, Vornlocker said. Broken mailboxes on county or state roads will be replaced by those entities, he said.

Kramer said the township could invest in a GPS system that would help prevent missed streets, but, he said, “that would cost money.”

He said the township will be reviewing its options during the upcoming budget hearings.

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