ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, January 15, 1996 TAG: 9601150030
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
A QUICK pass at all but the steepest few streets?
Or repeated scraping along the major thoroughfares?
Make the roads in residential neighborhoods at least passable so more people can get their cars out - and perhaps get stuck on only partly cleared roads downtown?
Or clean the main streets down to the pavement, leaving them to dry in the sun, but also leave many side streets untouched and many residents unable to get out of their driveways?
Snow removal, it turns out, is something of a chess game.
In the wake of last week's blizzard, (OK, near blizzard), Roanoke officials opted for strategy No. 1: Municipal crews tried to make most streets passable, rather than make selected streets pavement-showing clear. But as they learned, there are no easy choices that will please all the people all the time when it comes to the stressful, exhausting, temper-testing business of re-establishing mobility once nature has buried roads, cars and every other manmade convenience under a couple of feet of snow,
Strategy can, and undoubtedly will, be debated after every major snowfall for all time. That's because, with all due respect to snow's beauty and recreational value, it is a danged nuisance.
You can't just leave snow where it lies; people would suffer and some could die - for example, if rescue vehicles can't get through to respond to an emergency.
But get enough of the stuff, and you don't have anywhere to put it. That is the final aggravation of snow. Sure, the plows can push it aside. But then what to do with it?
Homeowners, weary from digging out cars and driveways the first time(s) around, dig out again. With every shovelful, it's harder than the last shovelful to find a place to heave the stuff where it won't be in the way.
Downtown, where open space is scarce and traffic dense, the job of snow removal is literally that - removal. Plowing it and pushing it aside is just the start. Then it must be hauled off.
In 1993, after the last major snowstorm blanketed the region, Roanoke hauled 800 dump-truck loads of snow from downtown. Last week, city workers were figuring there would be 2,000 dump-truck loads to move out.
Destination? Washington Park, where kids could build snow castles and forts for a long time to come.
After a week of collective struggle, with people growing weary and patience wearing thin, those kids were among the few still having fun.
LENGTH: Medium: 51 linesby CNB