A great idea from Orland Park: don't push snow into the street

The Village of Orland Park has put out a great release today (read it below). I love this release. It's right on! Homeowners who push the snow onto the streets are a huge nuisance and cause all kinds of traffic problems. I've actually driven past while morons push huge piles of snow right in front of the car as I am about to drive by believing the car traffic will mash the snow and make it go away.

I can understand some snow ending up on the street when you are trying to break through the ice at the end of the driveway caused by the snow plows.

But snow should be moved with either a shovel or a snow blower on what would normally be grass areas. NOT ON THE STREET.

Good release Orland Park. They deserve credit.

Now, get all those darn cars parked on the streets off the streets so plows can clear all the snow. Those cars should be ticketed!

-- Ray Hanania

Orland Park Public Works:

Do Not Push Snow Into Street

Removed Snow Should Be Lawn Bound

ORLAND PARK – The Village of Orland Park Public Works Department is cautioning residents about the hazards of pushing shoveled snow into the street.

“Orland Park’s snow plows are like those that other northern Illinois agencies use to clear streets,” explained Director of Public Works Ed Wilmes. “The snow is discharged to the right, resulting in a ‘wind row’ at the edge of the street where the snow is discharged from the plow,” he said.

Shoveling homeowners are asked to not shovel or blow the wind row or other snow at the end of the driveway back into the street.

During the last few snow events in Orland Park, plowing crews have discovered a number of homes where the snow has been pushed back into the street.

“This snow then becomes packed down and freezes, creating an unnecessary hazard within a residential area,” Wilmes explained.

Residents should shovel or blow the snow from the end of the driveway onto the parkways next to the drives, paying attention to keep deep accumulations away from pedestrian areas and sidewalks.

Each year, the Orland Park Public Works Department releases its Top Ten List of Snow Tips for village residents.

“We’ve put together our own top ten list to let Orland Park residents know what they can do to help us when it snows,” Wilmes said.

“The most important thing we ask is that residents be patient. All of the streets in the village will be cleared in as short a time as possible, as the storm allows,” the director added.

Orland Park’s snow removal crews plow and salt more than 250 miles of roads throughout the village. The fleet includes twenty-four village owned trucks plowing and salting pre-designated routes. Private contractors are called in to plow when more than two to three inches of snow fall. Staff from the village’s Parks Department plow and shovel village owned properties and provide back-up for Public Works crews.

An integral part of combating a snowstorm is street salting. In Orland Park, first priority is given to the main streets, those with heaviest year round traffic, followed by secondary thoroughfares and cul-de-sacs. Orland Park is able to store more than 3500 tons of salt under a protective cover throughout the year.

ORLAND PARK’S TOP TEN SNOW TIPS

1.

Village ordinance prohibits parking on village streets once two inches of snow has fallen.

2.

Parked vehicles must be kept off of the streets for ten hours after it has stopped snowing.

3.

When clearing the driveway, residents should place snow on either side of the driveway---on the lawn---and never in the street.

4.

Residents should keep garbage cans and recycle bins from rolling into the street on garbage pick up day.

5.

Designate curbs with five free stakes available from the Public Works Department.

6.

Digging from the street, clear out hydrants so that fire personnel can easily access them if necessary.

7.

Do not clear your driveway at the curbline until the snowplow driver has made his last curb pass in front of your residence.

8.

Be patient. Every storm is different with many variables. Streets may have to be plowed more than once.

9.

Communicate with the Public Works Department. Report any ice formations on the street so that they can be salted. Clear the snow from storm sewers in front of your home so melting snow can easily drain, preventing ice patches.

10. Mailboxes should be kept in good repair and be placed at least one foot behind the curb to avoid damage. It is the residents’ responsibility to clear a safe path around mailboxes to ensure delivery. Homeowners’ associations are responsible for clearing the area around cluster mailboxes.

“Public Works personnel are hard working, dedicated people who take great pride in the work that they do. These village employees strive to make the streets as safe as possible for the motoring public,” Wilmes said.

While all of the snow tips are important for an effective removal campaign, Wilmes noted, “One of the biggest problems our drivers face is the number of vehicles that are parked on the street after two inches of snow has fallen.”

“We ask all residents if they know that a snow storm is coming, to move parked vehicles off of the street. This will allow snow crews to complete the plowing faster, safer and in a more efficient manner,” he said.

Further information about Orland Park’s Snow Removal Program is available by calling the village’s Public Works Department at 708/403-6350.

-30-

I'll take the mayor's word he did not ask for any special treatment

By the time Mayor McLaughlin returned home from work on Tuesday night, after a nearly 5 hour drive and in one of the worst snow storms we'ved had in a while, it was close to 10 pm, he explained in an email. He said he shoveled his driveway, the way everyone did, and he said the street in front of his house looked like it was NOT yet plowed.

He insisted that he does not ask for special treatment, and I believe him.

Still, when I drove by his house (maybe around 7:45 after shoveling my driveway and trudging through my street that wasn't plowed until very late, too), I saw his side of the street WAS plowed. I also drove past the home of the village manager, but his street wasn't plowed, although, like I wrote, a plow DID go by and do an unusual thing, plowing down the intersecting street and then turning left instead of right onto his street -- who knows, maybe they don't know where the village manager lives yet.

But, like I said, it could very well be some overzealous village employee -- I've run into a few, and by the way they are very rude (I'd use another adjective but this is a family-read blog) -- or who knows, a neighbor with a huge street plow.

I had wished I could have checked out the streets in front of the homes of all the trustees, too, because while I focused on McLaughlin, it's the trustees who I really don't "trust." They refuse to be accountable, are always contentious, can't deal with any form of criticism whatsoever, and think that their (here's another spot for a bad adjective) doesn't stink.

Well, it does stink. They're not doing enough to explain things to the public. They're happy with the "happy talk" coverage. (I can see them posing with their index fingers pointing into their cheeks with big cheshire cat grins). Meanwhile, property taxes HAVE gone up. Village fees HAVE gone up. Attendance at village board meetings -- according to the dozens of people who reach out to me -- HAS gone down. (I'm not interested in hanging out there and taking their attitudes, either.) And the accountability on the village HAS gone down, too.

Politicians always think it is personal. It's not. I just want answers. I want explanations. I also want the village board meetings broadcast live on Comcast Cable instead of that junk that is now broadcast (and I'll skip over one of the biggest attitude employees in the village for now) on the village's channel.

I love the Village Web Site. (Although the email address for the village manager doesn't work. But knowing the MIS staff there, they will get on it right away because that's how they have always been, one team the mayor, the trustees and the village CAN count on -- of course, I say something nice about someone, and suddenly their careers take a dive. I criticize some goof who think's she is a "big shot" and she gets a career promotion.)

We're not stupid, just because we village residents don't hang out at the little restaurant parties and the fatcat contributors. Most of us in Orland Park are working families who are worried about how to pay the bills. A few are even struggling with their mortgages. We know what's going on and just because the "unTRUSTees" don't feel an obligation to give us real answers instead of the blah, blah, blah they write in the village newsletter, doesn't mean we, the citizens in Orland Park, don't see what's happening. We see it.

I'll give McLaughlin the benefit of the doubt on this one, but if I were mayor I heard that anyone plowed my street before the rest of the streets, I'd be hopping mad. And I would call in the uncle of the brother of the 19th ward resident whose cousin probably leaned on a pal who probably works in the village or the neighbor with a plow to clean the street, and I would read them the riot act!

Because people do what they THINK the government officials want them to do. If employees think they are supposed to suck up, they will suck up. But if they think the government wants them to do a great job -- and there are MANY employees at the Village who do a GREAT JOB, a few even reach out) -- then everyone who works for the village will do a great job, too.

-- Ray Hanania
http://www.orlandparker.com/

By the way, many residents in Orland Park like this blog, even if Jim Dodge and a few of the other trustees do not -- maybe he wants to get a local reporter from a now crippled dommunity newspaper that is slowly doing a vanishing act to unfairly attack me in print (without even calling me for a comment) the way he did the last time I authored an Orland Park blog ...