Witer time again.... and the yearly fight

dewdropsinwv

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Every winter, I go threw this annual fight with the local High way department to get our road plowed. Now that I have a part time job I will actually need to get off the hill once in a while.... starting tomorrow morning! YIKES.
 

journey11

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You guys must have gotten more snow than we did (<1" here). I know what you mean though, about these secondary roads. We have heavy traffic on our road as it is a shortcut from one main road to another and 3 bus routes come through daily, but still we are one of the last to be plowed. It is a quarter mile from my house to the main road and even when the main road is clear, our little piece can be quite treacherous. Only if you can get to the main road, then you can get to work!
 

Smart Red

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Much the same situation here, Dew. For years we were one of the first roads that got plowed after a snow. It's been nearly 20 years since that ended. I prefer to think that my neighbor T-ed off the snow-plow driver enough that he skips our road until much later since it happened just about the time they moved in.

I've seen our road from the intersection to the West plowed and our road to the intersection to the East plowed, but the one mile stretch I live on. . nada! Since only 4 families live along this part of the road, since the snow-plow driver has considerately NOT left a snow pile at the end of our driveway since seeing DH shoveling our long drive by hand and discussing DH's age, and since the neighbors are the only new 'guys' on the block, I blame them.

Added to that, my part of the road runs East to West, but there are two sharp corners along the neighbors' property that runs North to South. Any wind at all and some part of this road is nearly impassible.

Good luck with the County snow plowing. I don't know how to effect a change, but I surely would if I could.
 

seedcorn

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I'm impressed that they have equipment to handle snow. Where my folks retired, they just stayed at home if threat of snow.
 

so lucky

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We live on a state highway that gets plowed quickly, and the plowed snow ends up in our driveway, up hill from our house. We have had to hand shovel 3 feet of hard packed snow and cinders out of our way so we could get out on the road. Then to have the highway department to come along again and plow a bunch more onto the driveway. Neither I nor my DH should be exerting ourselves that way. We are what most of the world calls "elderly."
I can wait out most snow storms. We have a stockpile of food, etc. But with my DH's anxiety, he will self destruct in an emergency. Not looking forward to the first snow-in this winter.
 

thistlebloom

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@so lucky, is there any possibility of getting a local snow removal guy (around here there are lots of private individuals, mostly the guys that have a lawn service ) to dig your driveway out after plowing?
 

bobm

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Here the guys who do trash pick up are the ones who plow. Every Christmas I give them a card with cash. Never had problem with trash or plowing.
Turning to bribery , are we ? :caf
 

Ridgerunner

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@Smart Red is that new neighbor a top elected official? Here the county judge, the top executive, lives on a road that is very late to be plowed. That way when someone complains to her that their road isn't cleared, she just says her road isn't cleared yet either. Now that is a wise politician! She recently won reelection.

The odds are that you are right. Some people seem to go out of their way to get people PO'd at them, even if it is someone they depend on for services. I don't understand that attitude. I always give the mail carrier, newspaper carrier, and the trash people a Christmas gift, usually a check or gift card for $20. Once when we got a new mail carrier I was warned about how hard she was to get along with. When I got the chance I introduced myself and asked her name, just being polite and friendly. I never had any problems with her.

Dew I can't help you. I live up the road about a half mile on a private road. The county never does anything to it. But my next neighbor up the road is a school teacher that has to get to school. Her husband has heavy farm equipment and makes sure she can drive out so I get the benefit from that. He's the one that organizes buying and spreading gravel when the road needs repair. I always pay for my share of the gravel without any drama. Some of the other people on this private road don't always pay for their share. Guess who gets the most benefit of the gravel that is purchased.

How many people live on that stretch of road, especially school kids or people that need to get to work? After I graduated from high school, the people that lived on my road, a one mile long loop, went to a school board meeting with the number of school kids that were riding the bus and had to walk up to a half mile out to get to the bus. They got the bus route changed to include that loop. If you can do something like that, maybe a petition to the county road commissioner or the county executive with those numbers and ask that your road be moved up on the priority list you might get some relief. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. Or if you know who is going to win the next election, campaign for them. Bribery or not, that was effective even before Andrew Jackson became president.
 

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