It's All About Communicating

The City of Fredericksburg appears to have a major disconnect when communicating with its citizens. During the recent record breaking snowstorms, the salting and plowing of neighborhood streets was spotty and a number of them, simply overlooked. I concluded that city representatives were most likely receiving quite a bit of hate mail because of the situation.

Despite extensive searching of the city's website, I was unable to find any mention of snow removal efforts or the trials, tribulations the city was going through. There was an after action report from the December storm, but nothing on the current efforts. My search for communication continued. I presumed the Mayor, Vice Mayor and each council member would have some sort of blog/website in order to communicate with their constituents about the situation. In this I was wrong. While one councilman has a website, I found nothing on it about the city's uphill battle with the snow & ice. Another council member pointed me towards a FredTalk site that discussed snow removal. It was buried (no pun intended) in the Fredericksburg Community forum.

My point? City representatives need to be more communicative with residents when incidents like this occur. Residents were/are screaming for roads to be plowed. What they don't know (and I only recently learned) is that city plows have rubber tipped blades. These are good only for small to moderate amounts of snow and protect the tarmac better than steel blades. Well, we've had something slightly more than "small to moderate amounts of snow," thus the plows can only be effective to a point. Had this small tidbit of information been forthcoming, I predict much of the venom from residents, may have been ameliorated. Even if council members are unable to do anything, the perception that they too are experiencing the same frustration, pain, heartburn and inconvenience, earns them some capital, understanding and tolerance from their constituents.

I personally would like to see all of our elected representatives with some type of Blog or website. Not only to communicate with the residents of their specific wards, but to all residents. Providing individual views and insight; good, bad or indifferent, on not just major events such as this seasons snowstorms, but on all matters pertaining to the city. Sure, we can read about their positions in the local paper; but that naturally contains a journalistic slant, selected sound bites and rarely provides the whole story. Most people appreciate getting their information, unfiltered. Heck, I know I do. While I may not agree with every position of my elected representatives, they earn my respect for being forthright and allowing me to hear/read it in their own words.

Missed Opportunities and Frustration

I previously wrote about the joy of living in a real neighborhood. A place where we all come together to help one another. With an additional 18" of snow received over the course of last weekend, we once again emerged from our homes to begin digging.

One of the first things we noticed was that the City had not yet come through to plow or scrape. Not one pass on the street. I understand the need to put resources towards the main roads and keep them clear during the storm. As of this writing, almost 48 hours after then final flake has fallen, the City still has not shown its face on Winchester Street. We now have 4-6" of hard packed ice. Both Sunday afternoon and today the City missed, in my opinion, opportunities to do additional clearing, not only here but on the main roads as well. With temperatures in the mid 30's and bright sun, the snow is melting. A heavy slush that would have been much easier to remove. Instead, it will refreeze with the low of 16 degrees for tonite, create havoc for drivers and serve as a hellacious base for the next round of winter weather that is to begin tomorrow afternoon.

Where is Public Works to scrape the streets and massive ice ruts that exist? More importantly where is City Council to oversee the situation? I'm sure there are streets in the same state and residents all over the city, asking the same questions, however, I really don't care about them. I care about the folks in the 5 blocks that make up the length of Winchester St.