By Cris Italia and Kimberly Acevedo
With major roads a mess, the City of Long Beach, says they did their part. "The city is not responsible for clearing snow and salting on Park Ave. from Neptune Blvd. to Long Beach Rd.," said city spokesperson Matt Dwyer. "The city is broken up into a grid. Trucks are assigned to each area. In the event of a snow emergency, the priority streets are Park Avenue, Beech Street, Broadway, Pine Street in the canals."
While the City of Long Beach commended itself for a job well done, and the Town of Hempstead said they did their part, Nassau County seemed to pass the buck. Outside Long Beach, police at the Fourth Precinct reported 35 accidents on Thursday, which was 20 more than the Thursday two weeks earlier. Police were unable to break the total down into numbers for Lido Beach and Point Lookout. The precinct covers the Five Towns, Atlantic Beach, Oceanside, Island Park, East Rockaway, Lido Beach and Point Lookout.
"It was a huge jump in the number of accidents," said Fourth Precinct Capt. James O'Leary. "Obviously, the condition of the roads contributed to it and it was a combination of that and the motorists' failure to slow down in those conditions. It's kind of like a traffic nightmare. It was busy for us that day and it was all traffic-related."
O'Leary added that, as usual, there were fewer crimes committed during the snowstorm, so police were able to concentrate on the safety of motorists. "The number of calls [for service] decreased," he said, "but it was more than made up for in the number of traffic responses."
Nassau County Legislator Jeff Toback (D-Oceanside) felt the county did an adequate job of cleaning the streets. "I was on East Rockaway Road at about 3 p.m. and there didn't seem to be a problem," Toback said.
With the snowstorm predicted well in advance, Toback says the Department of Public Works was more than prepared. "They had all the supplies they needed," Toback said. He also explained that county policy requires there to be more than a half-inch of snow on the ground before plowing begins.
"I was told there would be no pre-salting of any kind because it wouldn't be effective without enough precipitation," Toback said. "The salt would just be pushed to the curb and wouldn't do anything."
Toback also insisted that several roads were "fine" at or around rush hour.
Dwyer confirmed that plows were deployed shortly after 2 p.m. on Thursday, cleaning up city streets before rush hour traffic. There were 27 vehicles [includes plows salter or sander, pick up truck with plow, industrial plow, in some cases, a plow may be a pay loader, construction piece.] working on the roads to keep them clear of snow. By 5 p.m., Dwyer says the streets were clean. "Our intent was to ease the situation prior to rush hour," he said.
Town responds to emergency
The Town of Hempstead, which took harsh criticism two years ago for not responding appropriately to a winter storm, was well prepared this time. The town equipped its workers with 50,000 tons of salt and 250 pieces of snow-clearing equipment, said Susan Trinkle, a town spokesperson. Salt spreaders and plows were on the roads at 1 p.m., when there was enough snow to clear.
"I know from our end we were definitely prepared," Trinkle said. "The staff was all set and ready to go." And she said the communication among the departments -- sanitation, highway and conservation and waterways -- was all very good. About 17,000 tons of salt were actually needed to melt the ice from town roads, including Point Lookout and Lido Beach.
Jeff Lipton contributed to this story
