2011

Posted by Bob on January 19, 2011 under Daily Blogs | 13 Comments to Read

As posted earlier, schools were ultimately closed in Naugatuck today after an initial two (2) hour delay. While our office does not make the decision regarding school closings or delays, there was a series of events that resulted in the fifth (5th) consecutive school day being cancelled.

Decisions regarding school closings and delays are made by the Superintendent and the Board of Education Business Manager. The Business Manager personally drove roads around 5:00 AM this morning, at which time streets were in relatively good condition given recent weather. The decision was made to implement a two (2) hour delay to give Public Works crews a couple extra hours to prepare roads for bus travel.

Shortly after 6:00 AM, precipitation began to fall, and froze quickly in higher elevations. Our Police Department began to respond to numerous traffic incidents after roads became icy. Multiple roads were temporarily closed as a result of accidents, which slowed access by sand and plow trucks. In addition, our bus company reported that drivers were having difficulty arriving at work and that there were problems moving buses. It is my understanding that a decision was than made to close schools rather than begin bus pick-ups for high school routes. The decision was made in the interests of public safety.

It is a decision that I support. There was no fault on behalf of education officials who erred on the side of caution when reports of accidents and icy roads became numerous between 6:00 AM and 7:30 AM. Our Public Works crews plowed and sanded last night and were prepared for our first (1st) day of school in a week. We were not prepared for the morning’s additional precipitation and how quickly it froze on streets throughout the Borough. For that, I take responsibility and need to ensure that we can respond better on shorter notice to similar events.

There has been no attempt to withhold resources for any economic reasons during the recent surge of inclement weather. While we have a responsibility to taxpayers to manage limited resources appropriately, we do not balance that task with public safety. While are employees have responded tremendously and worked significant amounts of overtime this past week, we continue to respond to numerous problem areas throughout Naugatuck.

We realize that there is significant inconvenience to many as a result of multiple Winter storms, high levels of snow accumulation and numerous school closings. We also realize that residents are frustrated with continued disruption to normal life. Current forecasts are predicting additional snow for Friday (1/19/2011) morning. Please be assured that we will continue our attempts to improve our response to this unprecedented weather. We appreciate the collective patience of our residents under very trying circumstances.

If you are experiencing specific problems in your neighborhoods, please feel free to email me ( bob@bobmezzo.com ) or contact our Public Works Department ( 203-720-7072 ) directly.

BJ Forlenzo said,

This morning was just one of those “damned if you do – damned if you don’t” times. I know at my house I put sand and salt on my driveway at 6:45. Thinking I was done with that chore – was I surprised to go out an hour later and find the sand completely covered with ice again. Crazy – it’s just one of “those” winters. All anyone can do is their best – Mother Nature will always win!
David said,

Bob, are there any plans to remove snow piles to another location, like the one in front of my house which peaked at well over 15ft. Could we possibly utilize the green as a temporary snow dump?

Any thoughts?

David
Chris said,

Yes, but why is Naugatuck the only town that can’t handle these storms. The rest of the state is also getting this weather, yet Naugatuck is the only town to close school both last Friday and today?? The snow and slush from yesterday was NOT cleared properly, mainly on the side streets. Likewise, there was not sufficient sanding overnight to prepare for this morning. This was not helped by the lack of snow removal from the morning’s snowfall. There are plenty of hilly towns who are not having issues, so that’s not the answer.
Dave said,

How do we know other towns are not having the same issues but just sending the kids to school anyways? We cant have the public works out 24/7 sanding the roads. I’d rather my son be home safe then on a bus with the remote chance for an accident.
Bob said,

David: Please provide your address and I will request that the snow pile be addressed if there is someplace to put the snow. The cost and logistics of removing snow from every residential neighborhood is beyond the resources and abilities of most municipalities. If you would like provide your address privately, please email to bob@bobmezzo.com.

Chris: We did have trucks sanding last night. Whether or not it was sufficient is certainly a matter of debate. The fact is that all reports indicated that roads were suitable for travel around 5:00 AM, but many froze quickly after precipitation, primarily between 6:00 AM and 7:00 AM. This was certainly the case in the higher elevations of Naugatuck. It is hard to know if the particular conditions were unique to Naugatuck, but you certainly can argue that other communities were able to address their respective conditions in a manner that allowed for schools to open. Regardless, we need to be better prepared to react quickly, and that is my responsibility.
John said,

Regarding your comment to cris: http://www.wfsb.com/news/26543837/detail.html

I goto school in New Haven, but live in Naugatuck.. Therefor regardless to Naugatuck not having school, I did. I do not understand how New Haven roads are always in better condition then in Naugatuck.. New Haven is bigger than Naugatuck but yet they can clean the roads faster? Yes in most cases New Haven is warmer and gets less snow, however they got more snow then we got last Wednesday, and we had school on Friday, and roads were much better then ours.

I think that Naugatuck should of held off on investing in a new garbage system, and have invested in better snow equipment. Snow has been a problem for at least three years now, and I do not blame you as mayor, I think that the town should really get some advice from other towns, because Naugatuck needs help badly..
Bob said,

Hi John:

You make valid points. I do not know how applicable the comparison of Naugatuck to New Haven is, but we are always looking to improve operations.

With regard to your link, Naugatuck has been removing snow from the central business district since last Thursday (1/13/2011) using both Borough employees and private contractors. It is a time consuming and expensive process. Attempting to the do the same in residential neighborhoods is beyond the capacity and resources of most municipalities.

Maybe your suggestion of allocating resources differently deserves a community debate. One factor to consider, however, is how often we have a storm that drops as much snowfall as Storm Benedict. Levels of constructing infrastructure systems are often measured in a “number of year” storms; i.e. the capacity to handle a storm that is likely to occur over a particular number of years. I do not remember a storm that brought as much snowfall as Benedict since the Blizzard of ’78. While we have collectively experienced significant inconvenience throughout the past week, the question to debate is how much of our limited resources should be devoted to preparing for a storm that typically happens every five (5) years, ten (10) years, twenty (20) years, etc. I am sure there are reasonable arguments to be made on multiple viewpoints.

Thanks again for your comments and suggestions.
Sherrie said,

Bob

I have been very disappointed with how the roads have been done this year thus far. Today I tried to get down any hill adjacent to Mulberry St. for 1 hour and there were accidents every where. I am sure people were driving too fast but we are a small town and should be ashamed how are roads have been looking. In regards to cancelling school today that was the right thing to do after my 1.25 hour commute just getting to route 8 from my house. In regards to removing snow piles, my day care provider lives on a cul-de-sac and the town put a 10 ft. pile of snow in front of her walkway and I believe it is unacceptable to block walkways as it is a safety hazard for any child or adult. I called the mayor’s office and the street department on Thursday of last week asking that this pile at my day care provider be removed and the street department said they would send out the foreman and he never came and your secretary said she would give you the message and my day care provider never received a call or anything. We both provided her phone number and address to both of you but no response has been received as of yet. Please attend to this matter prior to the next snow storm as it should have never happened. Thanks in advance.
W said,

My job requires me to be on the road in Middlebury and Naugatuck. King Street is half Middlebury and half Naugatuck. I just want to say that this is a perfect example of the difference in how bad weather is handled. The Middlebury half is completely clear and free of snow and ice but once you hit the Naugatuck half……It is completely covered in three inches of snow and ice!!!! It is amazing!
chris said,

Thanks for your response, I agree the additional rain in the morning could have caused issues. However, i do think as a whole that Naugatuck’s plowing is always worse than most other towns. That is not just this year, it seems every year, even before you were mayor. It’s nothing to do with you.
I don’t feel you should be held responsible, you can’t oversee these guys all day and make sure they are doing the job.
Nancy said,

I agree with John and Chris. First off, Naugatuck was the ONLY town yesterday with no school for the kids. All the other surrounding towns have “limited resources” like this town does and they still managed to get kids to school safely. Chris is right, as a whole Naugatucks plowing is the worse EVERY year. Tell all the people that were in all the accidents with wrecked cars, or sliding on their streets turning around to go back home and losing a days pay that public works did their best. What a joke! How about my son trying to make it to his bus stop on a sheet of ice (plows NEVER came down our street to sand and salt) and he fell and hurt himself and a car sliding all over the place and he thought he was going to get run over!!!!! You tell my son public works did their best! He was frightened and hurt! THEN school was called off!! This is very BAD and poor judgement on the public works AND the BOE part once again!! Bottom line is…….inabilities,inadaquacies and ignorance of the PW and BOE!! Yes Mayor, there are steep hills on this side of town that need to be checked first, NOT the downtown area where its flat outside of town hall! Totally DISGUSTED!
Bob said,

Sherrie: Please let me know the address of the day care and I will ensure the matter is resolved. You can email directly to (bob@bobmezzo.com) if you would like to maintain privacy. That is the first (1st) of have heard of that problem. I doubt Public Works has a list of home day cares, and cul-de-sacs have been a problem area.
Bob said,

There are many valid points that are made, but I do not agree in general that roads get worse and worse every year. Comparing one (1) community to another is appropriate, but it does not always yield a simple or relative conclusion.

We have received reports that other communities in our area experienced a similar, sudden combination of precipitation and dropping temperatures. Waterbury had numerous difficulties; Trumbull reportedly had instances of students waiting an hour at bus stops; and Shelton had icy areas. Personally I make no judgments as to why a particular community makes a decision to close or not close schools as each has its own set of unique circumstances; but we had to make a choice in a short amount of time that protects people in Naugatuck. After many days of closed schools, we tried to have school on Wednesday (1/19/2011). When conditions changed quickly, a decision had to be made. I do believe that the Board of Education’s “Code Ed” notification system needs to be operational, which could help avoid confusion in such situations. I myself have signed-up for the “notify me” system, but have not received an alerts.

As I stated above, it is certainly a good debate as to how many tax dollars should be allocated on an annual basis to deal with the most extreme of Winters. Generally, we use three (3) year averages when crafting expenditure line items during the budget process. This avoids anomalies like a particularly mild Winter experienced in 2009-2010. We could add staff and equipment, but there is a cost. Doing so would require a reallocation from other services.

In addition, we are a community that has allowed numerous developments on quarter (1/4) and fifth (1/5) of an acre lots throughout numerous neighborhoods on hills. While our land use boards have done a great job in recent years regulating newer developments, they are in many instances legally bound by past history. Several people have compared our response to Middlebury. The resources, level of services provided, topography and population density is vastly different in Middlebury than in Naugatuck.