Category: Another Viewpoint || By Webmaster

The following is a reader's commentary. It does not reflect the views of the board of directors of Tube City Community Media Inc. or contributors to Tube City Almanac.

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Reader "Joe Lysle" responds to Tuesday's Almanac by passing along a link to the Daily News and says:

The biggest problem was sightseeing? Really? Really?

Not that we maybe don't have enough trucks, or salt, or people to drive those trucks? He's actually going to blame everyone else for this? Bulls--t.

I'll admit, I wasn't here for most of it. I was in Mansfield, Ohio, from Friday afternoon until Sunday afternoon. But what I did see was a salt spreader "preparing" for the storm on Friday by laying a singular 30-foot strip of salt down Grandview (next to the cemetery) after following it the entire way up Versailles from Coursin Street.

When my wife hiked around the neighborhood (down to Lampert's and then up again towards the Viking) on Saturday, she saw no sign of any truck at all.

When I got home on Sunday, I didn't see any vehicles until Monday early afternoon, when I saw two of the public works trucks inexplicably go down Garbett Avenue, get stuck in the snow on the side of the road, then call a backhoe to pull them out.

Did the backhoe drop the plow on any of the four trips it made up and down Garbett, Abraham or Grandview? No. I watched.

A few hours later, I actually did see a few loaded salt trucks (with plows) make a handful of trips around our corner. Did they spread salt or lower the plow? Nope. Not once.

I know this, because I watched again. It's easy to hear them coming because there's no other traffic in our neighborhood.

Our neighborhood didn't actually get a plowing pass until late (Tuesday) night.

My neighbors and I have been doing our part. We've been digging out the other folks, helping to push cars through the intersection, and clearing the street.

All I'm asking is that the City not act like the reason we didn't get serviced is because we were in the way, or make some false assertion that they're "getting everywhere as soon as they can."

If there were so many tourists and sightseers, then I suppose I should put up my Christmas lights again and collect a donation from each car like I'm the f---ing Celebration of Lights at Oglebay.

I actually went to work yesterday morning, and the obvious shortcomings of our ineffectual City management and public works employees was only further underscored by the fact that both Walnut and Fifth Avenue were still in p-ss-poor condition three days after the storm began, but that I saw two employees sharing the back-breaking labor of pushing a single one-handed salt spreader on the clean, snow-free, dry section of sidewalk in front of the police/fire building -- while another one carried a shovel and watched.

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The preceding was a guest commentary. Responsible replies are welcome.

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