Editor's Note: This piece originally appeared in the Middletown Insider on Feb. 11.
To the Editor:
I was born and raised in a small New Hampshire town (Newport), where in the 1950s to 1960s, the snowbanks were so high cars had to tie flags to their antennas so pedestrians could see them coming down the street.
The town always maintained some large equipment pieces (road graders, front-end loaders) to meet the worst-case scenarios in the winter. Road graders with an old-fashioned v-plow are excellent for breaking up drifts and extreme snow depths.
In my recollection, we never had blocked or impassable roads, and school closings were rare! In my neighborhood, (Colonial Road/Scenic View Drive) we are "open" to Laurel Grove Road. This effort was due entirely to my neighbors ... their first strategy on Saturday morning was to use snowblowers to "cut" a path between houses and to continue this path down Scenic View to Colonial and ultimately all the way to Laurel Grove Road.
It started strictly as an emergency measure to insure access to homes. This whole process was accomplished by only two neighbors on Saturday! With improvement in the weather by Sunday morning, a crew of two others joined the original two, and along with a pick-up plow truck, "opened up" Scenic View Drive, almost all of Colonial down to Laurel Grove Road.
This whole scenario reminded me of neighbors helping neighbors many years ago in New Hampshire. What a great site it was yesterday to see the four snow blowers working along side of the plow truck to clear the roads!
Former Mayor Giuliano was correct in his assessment [Former Mayor: He'd Have Prioritized Blizzard Response Much Differently], in my opinion.
Paul Dodge
Middletown