By JERRY BARMASH
After outrage by many residents, the town took action. It hired a consultant to examine what went wrong and what could be done better for the next storm.
Supervisor Richard Guardino admitted he wasn't happy with the way town employees performed in the snow. We've got to do a better job, so this doesn't happen again, Guardino said. In many communities we did not do a good job and I apologize for that. The town has taken measures to find out what went wrong by hiring Frank J. Scarangella as a consultant. Scarangella is the former deputy director of operations of the town's highway department who was in that position back in 1996, when 82 inches of snow fell on us. Mr. Scarangella will review the departments' operations from top to bottom and give recommendations on how we can do better, Guardino said.
Forty-year Baldwin resident Larry Zimmerman, who lives on Howard Boulevard in Baldwin Harbor, was disgusted by the shape of the roads after that weekend, and said you couldn't drive through the Harbor with a typical car.
Zimmerman, who runs a wholesale business from a storefront on Merrick Road, believed it was the worst job of snow removal he'd ever seen. They came with a plow about 12:30, he said of the Saturday it stormed. The snow kept going until about 2 or 3, but they never came back.
Zimmerman's main complaint was that Hempstead dropped the ball on this one. Whether the reason was the Town not wanting to pay the overtime for the weekend followed by double-time for the Jan. 1 holiday, or a shortage of manpower, Zimmerman declared, They deserve a spanking for this one.
Mike McConnell, spokesperson for Hempstead, said there was no truth to overtime being the issue.
Mike Sheehan, director of facilities and transportation for Baldwin schools, said schools were allowed to open on Tuesday, Jan. 2, because the day after the storm, Hempstead's Emergency Management Team told a member of his staff that they didn't anticipate any problems. Sheehan said he never heard from the Town again and opened the schools as scheduled.
However, Tuesday morning he received a call from the bus company the school uses. He was told that side streets in Baldwin were not so passable.
George Keller, Nassau regional vice president of Atlantic Express Bus Company, said that as bad as the roads were in Baldwin, they were better than other areas driven through. However, Keller did see side streets that weren't treated well. Some roads were plowed early, but you could tell they didn't go back for a second round. By Wednesday, Keller added, it was like night and day.
McConnell said that, through Tuesday, crews were working townwide around the clock to clean up the lingering snow. Buses arrived at their Baldwin destinations 30-45 minutes late Tuesday morning. However, because the Town hadn't notified him of difficult road conditions, Sheehan said a delayed opening of school wasn't even considered.
Asked if the schools could have done anything from Sunday to Tuesday to make sure there would be no problems, Sheehan said, I don't know what else we could have done, other than me getting out there and plowing myself.
But businessman Zimmerman said the snow-removal effort, or lack thereof, was no accident. We had this warning well in advance.
County Leg. Joseph Scannell (D-Baldwin) concurred, saying he was amazed at how little snow had been cleared after the weekend.
He blamed the slow response to clearing county roads on a lack of workers. This is the reason we've been pushing to rehire people in the Department of Public Works, he said.
Spokesperson McConnell's stance for the Town was slightly different. It was just a very difficult storm. Although he wouldn't speak specifically about the road conditions in Baldwin, he did say much of the problem was that the majority of the coverage area is residential and, with a long holiday weekend, many cars were left on the side of the road, hampering work crews from plowing efficiently.
McConnell said that for Town crews to do their job most effectively, he requested all residents, when shoveling, to direct the snow back to their property and off the street.
Parents called the Baldwin schools that Tuesday, not so much annoyed, according to Sheehan, but having angst as they tried to get information about the side streets, buses and school-arrival times.
Sheehan added that, despite the commotion, all children got to school that day without a scratch or incident.
