I put off writing this letter several times. In this last snow storm, the mishandling of the streets, snow removal, and streets covered with a solid layer of ice made a dangerous situation for the safety of our children walking to school, buses, and vehicles driving. Once more I had to phone our public works director to get the job done and sand the streets. I shouldn’t have to do this nor should I have to listen to his never-ending excuses. Doesn’t have time, too many streets.

Last time I spoke with him in person about pushing back the snow so the streets won’t become too narrow, he said; “as long as two autos can get by.” Well I’ve seen my street, Maple Ridge Drive, one auto wide. And sometimes I have had to use my plow to open up the street for autos to use. Quail Ridge and Cardinal Drive still are only wide enough for one auto in most places. Another excuse was the plow drivers were afraid of wiping out the mailboxes. There are only seven mailboxes easily visible. The small trucks contracted to plow and sand the side streets are built for driveways not streets.

The town owns “wheelers” with “wing” plows and sanders that can handle that job. We also have a mountain of sand to be used. Maybe our public works director plans to box it in so our kids will have the biggest sandbox in the state. The people of this town have paid for the equipment, the sand, and the employees to do the job. Why are you holding it all back public works director?

I’m sure the truck drivers would love to supplement their income with some overtime on their meager hourly wages this town pays them. But you, public works director, draw a very nice comfortable salary. Why don’t you along with our town manager who also gets a nice comfortable salary, get together and give your public works people at least an additional $3 an hour increase in pay. You got yours, how about them now? I’m willing to pay the additional taxes as I’m sure the majority of our towns people also would be if they were aware of the meager wages the drivers were paid. What? Don’t have the guts to stand up for our town’s employees?

Another excuse was the plow drivers already worked too many hours. How many is too many? That’s part of the job. In Portland they work 24, 36, 48 hours. They wheel around those big “wheelers” with wing plows and sanders out of traffic and narrow city streets. Out at the airport the moment the first snowflake touches the pavement, brooms, plows, de-icers are out there until long after the storm has stopped. It could be two, three, or four days later. They also have hundreds, if not thousands of lights on two-foot stems on the active runways and taxiways. Part of the job; the word “excuse” is not in their vocabulary.

But our public works director knows it well, stating he does not have the time to inspect the snow removal and the sanding operations. Who then is watching over the private contractors to insure they are doing their job? Plowing snow and sanding out here in the country is a puff job. Believe me, I’ve been there. Our public works director seems to have a large problem knowing and doing his job.

We have a nice new sidewalk going to Edna Libby School from the intersection of routes 114 and 35, a sidewalk on the west side of 114. As usual the people’s wishes were ignored by the D.O.T., the town, and the G.P.C.O.C. They said it was for the children to walk to school safely. You know what part of, “the children are all bused” and don’t need a sidewalk, they didn’t understand. Everyone said if you must put a sidewalk in, put it on the east side. There is plenty of land there. Don’t take our land, but well, you have seen the results.

Now comes the big question, the town has a rule that homeowners must remove snow on the sidewalk in front of their home. Have you seen the humungous pile of snow the plow trucks have dumped on this sidewalk? Impossible for a homeowner to remove it, whether it was a D.O.T. or town plow truck that dumped it there, now it is their responsibility to remove it.

Today the snowstorm ended hours ago and my street and others have not been plowed yet. This creates a dangerous passage for an E.M.T. and or fire engine to get through. Plowing streets in a timely manner is called, “public safety.” What part of the words, “public safety” don’t you understand Mr. Public Works Director, also, you Mr. Town Manager? While all of you sleep in your nice cozy beds, people could have died in a fire or in need of an E.M.T. truck that might not have been able to make it up their road.

Please, any response to this letter in the Lakes Region Weekly other than, “thank you for reminding us all of our obligations and responsibilities, we will do the job,” will be nothing less than another excuse. Stand tall, accept the blame, and do the job.

Peter Hassapelis

Sebago Lake

P.S.

I want to thank John Balentine for the great job he did as editor. We’ll miss you John. Good luck.