No Fooling, Easton Really Wants to Clean Up Streets After a Hard Winter

No fooling, street sweeping will resume in
the City of Easton on April 1, city
officials say.

By Christina Georgiou

The city will resume its regular street sweeping schedule next week on Tuesday, April 1, and city officials say they are serious about enforcing no parking ordinances to get the job done.

"It's no April Fool's joke. After this winter, the streets really need to be swept," said City Administrator Glenn Steckman at Easton's city council meeting Wednesday evening.

The city began leaving bright pink flyers on cars along city street sweeping routes this week to remind residents to move their cars on street sweeping routes during designated times, Mayor Sal Panto said.

"We're trying to be proactive so we don't have to give people tickets," the mayor said.

Steckman said even one car left on the side of a street on a block being swept makes it impossible for the sweeper to do a thorough job.

Litter and debris left behind after numerous
winter storms lines many of Easton's streets,
and city street sweepers can't get to it
with parked cars in the way.

"It only benefits everyone when we can get all of the cars off one side of the street so we can clean it," he said.

Councilwoman El Warner questioned whether not having a grace period and at first issuing warnings to those that forget to move their cars was really a good idea.

"I mean, I can hear it, 'There's still snow on the street they never cleared, and they're ticketing,'" she said.

"We might be able to give one week," Steckman said.

"We weren't going to announce it, but the cat's out of the bag," Panto added.

Additionally, the city has already begun the process of filling potholes on city streets caused by the cold this winter. Panto said the total cost of several severe storms and extremely low temperatures is still being tallied.

"This has been a rough winter," he said, noting that the city spent about $258,000 on snow removal. "We expect another $100,000 in road repairs and filling pot holes."

In many places in the city, a long, cold snowy winter has
left piles of snow along streets that has yet to melt.

A better estimate of the total costs is expected to be complete by the next city council meeting, and when it is, city officials will then discuss any budget issues, the mayor said.

Both the mayor and city administrator said the harsh weather this winter has given the city the opportunity to learn more about how to handle snow emergencies.

"I think there have been a lot of lessons learned this winter," Steckman said.

Panto suggested the city may implement a robo-call system next year to directly inform residents of impending snow emergencies and to remind them to move their cars.

Additionally, the public works department will be looking at the current snow emergency route map and the possibility of making changes, he said.

Cleanup from Latest Snowfall Ongoing, Will Take Days to Clear

By Christina Georgiou

Residents shovel out cars on Ferry Street in Easton's West Ward
Thursday afternoon. Snowfall in excess of 12 inches, on top of previous
snow already on the ground, has left huge piles of snow all over the city,
which officials say workers will be working on removing well into next week.

The latest official snow emergency declaration ended this afternoon, but it will take days to clean up from the latest storm to hit the city and surrounding area, but workers will be working daily until the job is done--probably some time next week--Easton city officials say.

"I think the operation is going well," said Easton Public Works Director David Hopkins. "The crew has all of the streets passable at this point, at least all of the roadways that they were able to get through." 

Cars parked along streets that are not designated snow emergency routes make it harder for plows to do their job, but city officials realize that parking options are limited in some areas. They're also reminding residents that shoveled snow should not be thrown back into the street.

"Obviously on the side streets with on-street parking there is decreasing space to store snow; however, we still cannot have it thrown back into the street," Hopkins said.  "This is a real problem, especially with lower temperatures and re-freezing."

The city will be carting some of the snow away to clear more room, beginning Friday, he said.

"When we remove snow, we cannot dump it into the river so we store it at various locations throughout the city (where they can melt slowly)," Hopkins said. Snow will be moved to a parking lot along Lehigh Drive, the Hackett Park parking lot, Eddyside Park parking lot, and Heil parking lot, as well as other locations as city workers, aided by workers from private local firms contracted by the city, relocated small mountains of snow from city streets.