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While much of the city howled at the slow pace of snow removal following the Dec. 23 snow storm, at least one resident got special treatment from a city worker.
After an estimated 18 inches of snow fell on tiny Sunset Lane in Price Hill, Sandy Howard watched as a city of Cincinnati snow plow arrived to clear a personal parking spot in front of her neighbor’s house — and then left the rest of the street covered.
A two-lane road carved through the woods adjacent to Sunset Avenue in Price Hill, Sunset Lane is no major thoroughfare. Only a handful of houses line the road. With only a cursory glance, the road can be mistaken for a private driveway. For the residents of Sunset Lane, one snowy day usually means several days of traversing a treacherous road.
At first pleasantly surprised that her street was to be plowed, Howard was taking photographs when she realized something was amiss. After it was over, she phoned the Department of Public Services to ask, “How can I be on the list for preferential snow removal?”
‘The best we can’
As Howard peered out her front window, she noticed her neighbor standing in the street, flagging the snow plow operator to stop in front of his house.
The neighbor pulled his van away from the curb and parked it farther down the street.
The snowplow pulled into the spot where he had been parked and got stuck there.
Howard grabbed her digital camera.
“I thought it would be funny to take a picture of a plow stuck on our street, especially since they never plow it,” she says.
She snapped away and hoped she could make her kids laugh about the incident, but instead she caught what she feels is preferential treatment by a city worker on city time.
After several minutes of rocking his truck back and forth, the driver managed to maneuver the truck free. He then plowed away the snow in front of her neighbor’s drive.
The rest of the street remained layered with white while the plow operator climbed from his cab and grabbed a shovel from the back of his truck.
“Everyone else’s drive would have remained plowed in,” she said, noting that driveways often need to be shoveled a second time as snowplows push the snow from the center of the street against the curb.
“But this guy got out of the truck and shoveled the base of the driveway,” Howard says.
The neighbor then went to his van and retrieved a bucket. The driver climbed into the bed of his truck, shoveled salt into the bucket and gave it to the neighbor. They threw salt on the spot they had cleared, and the driver gave the neighbor the remainder that was in the bucket and drove off.
He had spent 45 minutes on Sunset Lane but never plowed the rest of the street.
“I called downtown to see how I could get on the list for preferential snow removal treatment,” Howard says. “They told me, ‘We’re doing the best we can.’ But when I mentioned I had pictures of the whole incident, a supervisor showed up at my house almost before I got off the phone.”
Tim Kellard, a supervisor with the Department of Public Services, wanted to see Howard’s pictures when he went to her house.
“He told me this was ‘wrong’ and ‘illegal’ and he was infuriated by this,” Howard says. “Then he asked if he could borrow the memory card to my digital camera.”
Howard refused but agreed to e-mail the pictures to Kellard.
“He told me the least this man (the plow operator) would get was 40 hours of suspension with no pay,” she says. “He told me this guy could have done four to six city streets in the time he spent out there.”
Kellard also said Howard’s street would be plowed soon, but five days later it still hadn’t been touched.
Muddying the snow
None of this is the case according to Diane Watkins assistant superintendent of the traffic and road operations division of the Department of Public Services.
“The driver somehow got off the road and got stuck in front of this man’s house,” she says. “He started spinning his tires and dug up the sod in this man’s yard.”
Howard’s neighbor came out of his house and offered the driver a shovel. They shoveled around his tires so he could free himself, according to Watkins. The neighbor then offered a bucket for the driver to put salt in, so he could place it around his tires.
The driver thought this man was being a compassionate citizen, so he offered the remainder of the salt as a thank you, Watkins says.
When the driver finally freed himself, “he noticed he had left mud all over, and he didn’t think that was right to do,” so he plowed off the area to clean it and drove on.
So what was this plow operator doing on Sunset Lane so early during this storm?
“He was dispatched to that location,” Watkins says. “He should have been out there throwing salt.”
“No way,” says Howard. “My neighbor flagged down the driver and then moved his van out of the way before the plow got stuck. They plowed the spot his car had been in, and then he put his car back.”
Although both accounts of the incident are plausible, Howard can be glad she didn’t lend out the memory card to her camera.
The incident could become fodder for a hearing at 6 p.m. Tuesday convened by City Councilwoman Laketa Cole. The hearing will examine the city’s response to the storm.
“After personally observing the condition of many city streets with the director of Public Services and hearing from the citizens, it is obvious that the city’s plan for snow removal is unacceptable,” Cole says. “The public hearing will be a chance for the administration to explain to citizens and council how they can improve this basic service.” ©
This article appears in Jan 5-11, 2005.