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Sunday, 07 February 2010 13:27 |
Rebuttal 1: I am not a frequent perambulator on the Boardwalk, but the last time I looked it appeared to me to be nothing more than a large side walk or a small street. If this is true, the frontend loaders dedicated to the Boardwalk can easily be diverted to other snow removal tasks within the city. The priority should not be on making the Boardwalk accessible to a few visitors or residents who are willing to endure freezing temperatures and high winds to see a beach covered with snow and ice, but first on the clearing those areas essential for the public’s safety and welfare (i.e., fire, emergency medical, and police facilities). Once this has been accomplished the emphasis should be on clearing the snow from those areas used by thousands of residents visiting public agencies, attend schools, and conducting commercial business.
Silly Argument 2: We don’t plow secondary roads because there is a huge risk of damaging cars parked on the streets or pushing snow into private driveways. The focus is on roads with high traffic volumes and speeds.
Rebuttal 2: It is really nice to know that the bureaucrats at the municipal center are really considerate and have a great sense of humor, too. They don’t want to ding, scratch or dent our vehicles or see us exert ourselves shoveling snow out of the drive. It must more fun and humorous watching us sliding on ice covered secondary roads, breaking a hip, wrecking our cars, and injuring or killing ourselves or others. Even funnier when your house is on fire or you have a heart attack, stroke or a child who can’t breathe is watching delayed emergency vehicles slipping and sliding on ice covered secondary roads.
To those who manage public works, I am, like many other city tax payers, a reasonable man. Of course, I don’t expect you to clean snow from every lane, crescent, way, cul-de-sac, street or bike path in the city. What I do expect is that once you have cleared the highly traveled fast moving roads is to clear the slower moving feeder roads, especially before it is packed into far more dangerous ice. Also, I really don’t like playing “dodge” car at ice covered intersections, especially those with lights and stop signs. A little sand and road salt would really be appreciated. Finally, I just sleep better at night knowing that in case of an emergency someone can get to my residence in a timely manner to save my life and property.
Silly Argument 3: It only snows here once every twenty years so we don’t invest in the equipment and employ additional people to remove snow, except on certain major roads. To do otherwise would be an inefficient use of tax dollars
Rebuttal 3: In over sixty years I have never personally experienced a fire, burglary, or other calamity. However, this does not deter me from investing in property insurance, fire extinguishers and detectors, security alarms and surveillance cameras. A gasoline electrical generator sits in my garage, but in more than thirty years I have never had an opportunity to use it, except for an occasional test. An emergency vehicle has never been dispatched to my residence, but I still pay taxes to maintain municipal fire and police departments. My expectation is that the city should do no less in order to provide for public safety. In all probability the city already has more than an adequate number of vehicles and drivers that are capable of pushing snow, but an investment, spread over several years, may be necessary to acquire the plows and sanders.
When it concerns protecting the lives and property of the people in this city I, like many others, are willing to tolerate a little inefficiency in the use of tax dollars. My level of tolerance for multiple millions of tax dollars for Norfolk Southern’s rail line or for the vacant Circuit City property, now rented to a scratch and dent appliance retailer, is almost non-existent. I find it amazing that Virginia Beach leaders want to be a faux city with highly urbanized town centers and light rail, but they seem totally inept at doing the basics.
The basic or fundamental purpose of governments at all levels is to first protect the health, lives and property of its citizens. Our municipal leaders failed to meet that responsibility.
Frank Palmieri - Virginia Beach
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Letters To The Editor 
