Roads Improved, Sidewalks Still Rough
The storm Friday to Saturday brought more snow to East Greenwich than the town had seen in decades.
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If you've been on Main Street in the past two days, you know it's not at its best and the sidewalks ... well, for long stretchs of Main Street, they are impassable.
"Most of the time they spent trying to widen the roads and clear drains," said Town Manager Bill Sequino Monday afternoon about the Public Works crew. He said he'd initially hoped the crew could clean up Main Street Monday night. The plan now is to clear the sidewalks Tuesday night.
The DPW crew began work Friday morning and continued through the weekend, with little rest. As Sequino said, "It was a very messy storm."
During the storm, the EG Fire District had 52 calls, according to Chief Peter Henrikson, but none of them serious. There were fire alarm soundings, a gas leak, 11 service calls, 4 calls for carbon monoxide alarms, 5 accidents (none serious), and 15 EMS calls.
The Fire District averages 7 to 8 calls a day, Henrikson said. This was twice as many as usual.
"We added some staff just because the nature of the storm," he said. "We kept two guys on the pickup truck so we didn’t have to put the $400,000 fire truck on the road."
For the first time in memory, Henrikson said, "We put tire chains on the two rescues" to make sure they could gain traction.
A R
6:51 am on Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Gotta give Dpw credit they did a great job, some cities still have roads not cleared never mind sidewalks.
Middle Road Resident
7:40 am on Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Sidewalks not clear is a problem as children need them to walk to school. Middle Road sidewalks not clear as of 7:30 a.m. I don't think Cedar is clear either. Cole Middle School and Hanaford Elementary students rely on the town to clear these sidewalks for their safety.
Carolyn Brown
8:31 am on Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Even though a blizzard this large causes problems with blocked sidewalks, I am glad residents do not get fined for not being able to shovel them. Only senior citizens live at my address and, living on a Social Security check, I for one am not able, either physically or financially, to get heavy wet snow cleared. - I saw on the news where one fireman actually died of a heart attack while shoveling, and an ole grandma is not in as good shape as a fireman! - Fortunately the short path from the street to the door is clear, so postal delivery is right on time. But I would not be upset at all if mail or trash pickup were delayed a few days.
Steven J Antonson Sr
6:04 pm on Tuesday, February 12, 2013
The DPW Snow plow drivers did a great job and kept going thruout the entire storm and never gave up and it shows, and we are talking about sharing services (LOL) other towns are still buried in snow.
This is why we live in East Greenwich to get the best and we do,,,,great job
Middle Road Resident
7:28 am on Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Wednesday morning and there are still mounds of snow and some tree branches blocking sidewalks on Middle and Cedar. If you are going to open schools, someone needs to be certain the kids can walk there safely.