The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
A township resident’s dissatisfaction with how snow from the recent storm was plowed on her street led to a shouting match between her and a Township Councilman at the February 24 Township Council meeting.
The dispute came to a head with the resident, Deborah Inman of Roberts Road, calling Councilman Carl Wright (D-Ward 4) a racial slur.
The incident overshadowed what was generally a positive review of how the Township’s Public Works and contracted plowing companies performed after the February 22-23 storm that dumped as much as 18 inches of snow on the township.
Inman, who said she was a lifelong resident and lived in her current house for 17 years, was annoyed because, she said, the snow plow contractor hired by the Township dumped a large amount of snow on her yard. She said that although her problem was eventually addressed, she charged that her neighborhood was always ignored by the Township, and said that Wright, her Councilman, did not take care of his constituents.
She also said that snow was dumped on a school bus stop across the street from her house, which would have forced students to wait for their buses in the street.
Inman said the Township should monitor the contractors they hire to plow snow.
Wright responded angrily, saying that he, too, had issues with snow being dumped on his mailbox. As his voice rose, Inman told Wright not to speak to her “in that tone.”
Wright persisted, saying that residents in his Ward need to call or email him if there is a problem. At one point during his response, Inman called him a slur, resulting in Mayor Phil Kramer telling both of them that they were causing a disturbance.
Wright later apologized, saying “I should have never done that. You elected me to take care of your business, and I apologize for that display that I just did.”
“Accept my sincere apology,” he said.
Township Manager Robert Vornlocker noted that Inman lives where two streets intersect on a curve, forming a kind of cul-de-sac.
“And given the fact that it’s like a cul-de-sac with driveways off of it, the snow has to go somewhere,” he said. “So it has to go onto people’s yards.”
Vornlocker said he has a similar problem.
“Right now in front of my house is literally a 10-foot high pile of snow that is approximately 40 feet wide and sticks out into the bulb by about 15 to 20 feet,” he said. “And I know the fact that that’s going to be the case because I’ve owned my house since 1989. And every major snowstorm results in the same thing.”
“But it’s not a question of whether or not the plow operator knew how to plow the snow,” he said. “They cleared the intersection, which is the responsibility of the plow operator. The fact that snow got pushed onto someone’s lawn is a result of 18 inches of snow and not 6 inches of snow.”
“It’s very easy to move it along a curb line when it’s six, not so easy when it’s 18,” he said.
Council members gave the snow plowing effort otherwise good grades.
“Council, I’ve done a ride-along with the snow plows,” Kramer said. “It is an education.”
“It is a rough ride, it’s hard.,” he said. “The person’s trying to get near the curb, and that plow is over there near the curb. You’re way up here. You need to do a ride-along and learn a lot.”
“There’s just limits to what can be done,” he said. “And most people who I talked to understood that the choice is a narrow street, or snow in the yard, or on their porch.”
“Most of the conversations that I had with the residents was similar to what the mayor just described,” Councilman Shubhendu Singh (D-Ward 1) said. “This is not about driver negligence, this is about operational physics. Now do we have a couple of tools that we can look at like snow gates, like sidewalk plow attachments? Yes, but I will give the answer because in the research that I did over the last 72 hours, it means a lot more drivers. It means a lot more passes.”
“It means slower operations and it means a lot more money, something that we cannot afford right now,” he said. “Are we going to drop all of those alternatives and not consider them? No, we will. But I think we need to be pragmatic in terms of the options that are available to us.”
“To Debra’s point, I’m glad you got the response when you called,” he said. “It didn’t solve your problem, but at least someone responded to, and I’m sure Councilman Wright responded as well.”
Township Manager Robert Vornlocker said DPW manager Carl Hauck was out driving a snow plow February 23.
“So rather than manning the desk in the Public Works Department, he was out plowing snow,” Vornlocker said.
“And he was out plowing snow until about 8 o’clock last night, and he had been in the office from about noontime yesterday, the day before,” he said. “So about 30 hours. And he was in his office at 7 this morning.”
Vornlocker said the costs of hiring additional people would be “staggering.”
Councilwoman Shepa Uddin (D-Ward 2) suggested that police patrol near school bus stops until the snow melts to ensure the students’ safety.
“it’s never going to be perfect, but I think the town has done a great job on getting the roads” plowed, she said. “I was out on the roads yesterday just to check things out, and it seems like most have decent roads. I didn’t have any major concerns reported. Again, it was more positive.
“They were really happy with how things got done,” she said.
Councilman Charles Onyejiaka (D-Ward 3) said that it was difficult for him and his neighbors to move after the storm.
“This particular snow is completely out of proportion,” he said. “Although our department was well prepared for it, it is just the way the snow just came down.”
“They did a good job, but for the fact that this particular one is out of proportion, we have to excuse them for the time delay,” he said.
Councilman James Vassanella (D-Ward 5) said the issue should be looked at practically.
“I know we all think our house and our area and our street is the most important and you better do it right,” he said. “And I admire and respect that approach because you should be protective of that and conscious of it and bring your concerns when you don’t feel standards have been met. But to put it into a more practical situation … We’ve got a lot of roadways. This is 18 inches of snow. We should be ready and we should go out there and kick butt in removing it.”
Vassanella said the contractors should be evaluated.
“If somebody is subpar upon a written review that can show that they’re performing subpar, I hope that we should find a way not to have to or want to rehire them,” he said.
Vassanella also commended township police for getting more people to obey the ban on parking on snow-covered roads.
Vassanella also questioned the Township’s requirement that sidewalks be shoveled no later than 12 hours after a snowfall, and suggested that that might better be extended to 24 hours.
“I wouldn’t want to be going out and giving anybody tickets 12 hours after,” he said. “I’m not saying we do, but we can look at those aspects because a six-inch snowstorm is a lot different than a 16-inch snowstorm.”
“I’d like to thank all the members, as well as the safety crew and the police department for doing a great job,” Deputy Mayor Alex Kharazi said. “At least I didn’t hear that we had any safety incidents, and that’s a blessing.”
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