UPDATE
: Mayor Bill Finch announced Monday afternoon City Hall, 45 Lyon Terrace, the Margaret E. Morton Government Center, 999 Broad St., and the City of Bridgeport Health Department will be closed to the public on Tuesday, Feb. 12. Only employees essential to storm cleanup and public safety are to report to work.
Monday morning update from Mayor Bill Finch:
The following streets have been plowed. A travel ban remains in effect throughout the City. Please stay off the roads so crews can continue to remove snow. The complete list of passable streets can be found on the City’s website at www.bridgeportct.gov/bptsnow
· Orange St from Hollister St to Newfield Ave
· Central Ave from Orange St to Stratford Ave
· Union Ave from Orange St to Stratford Ave
· Capital Ave from Lindley St to Lincoln Blvd
· Lindley St from North Ave to Summit St
· Barnum Ave from Seaview Ave to Stratford line
* Grant St from Barnum Ave to Mill Hill Ave
I would think many neighborhood stores and bodegas are having problems with deliveries of basics like milk, bread, eggs etc. that all come in by truck, which comes from a warehouse itself supplied by trucks. Then you have the problem of getting from the truck to the store over mountains of snow … People must be very disgruntled after making the slog through now-slushy pathways and streets. Any eyewitness accounts?
I just returned from a ride through the East Side and Downtown, it is a disaster. Would you believe Middle street where the post office is located has not been plowed? I have never seen the roads in such poor condition. We lost the plowing initiative when we sent the drivers home and left the roads unplowed for hours. I don’t know what the city is going to do now. I think two weeks is a better estimate of the time needed.
Still can’t get down Main Street with only one lane and once the melted stuff freezes tonight we’ll be totally _ucked. If they have limited equipment and manpower, they should work together and completely clean the main arteries and the hospital routes. Instead they do one street here and another one over there. They are bowing to political pressure from city councilmen and district leaders who need to prove something to their constituents. Other towns have their main roads completely cleared. There is no excuse.
Well there is an excuse, several in fact:
1. No emergency snow removal plan, there may be one on paper but it obviously doesn’t work
2. Poor, inexperienced management, the clueless political appointees are exposed in times of crisis
3. Old, inadequate equipment that hasn’t been replaced or supplemented in years
4. Lack of manpower as some plow drivers still have not come in as their streets are not plowed.
Ironic, isn’t it? The streets aren’t getting plowed because the plow drivers are stuck at home because their streets aren’t plowed. Only in Bridgeport.
I almost forgot, in this year’s budget public facilities budgeted for 41 ghost positions. Ghost positions are positions the city had no intention of filling. I bet Public facilities wishes they had hired the 41 positions they received money for. BTW the money is used by the administration as a slush fund for other items the city wants to spend it on, like patronage jobs.
Andy, I agree with you. Too many patronage jobs and understaffed departments and the city people suffer. I saw on Facebook a post where a resident called her councilwoman and was told she can’t do anything about the East Side streets not being plowed and to call DePrimo because it was not her problem then asked how she got her number. Maybe you gave it to her when you were looking for AB’s …
Last I checked on the city website your number is public … It’s paid for by our taxes. Hmmm.
Come on Politica08, you can do better than that. Politicamente, Pry Open the Juicy Stuff and tell us her name.
First priority is to pressure Finch into resigning. Enough is enough.
Welcome to OIB Politica08. Thank God I left the council in ’01. Had someone called me like that, I would had said: If you can pick up a phonebook to call me, you could have picked up a shovel.
Had they plowed Maplewood Avenue from Park Avenue to Mountain Grove Street, this would had opened a two-way path all the way across and closer to I-95 and Fairfield for anyone wanting to get across.
8:09 pm Glendale Avenue still not plowed. Walked up Main St. It is really a disaster out there. I have not received the Connecticut Post and it will be interesting if anybody writes letters regarding this. There were plenty of cars in the lot at Price Rite. Apparently some people got out and most likely stopped the plowing effort.
*** Trailers can only use the Railroad Ave underpass at Lafayette or Wordin Ave to venture north but neither has been plowed. Both main arteries to and from I-95; go figure! ***