Our view: Snow removal isn't a 'luxury'

June 18, 2008 10:59 am

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Times are tough financially and cities and towns are looking for ways to cut back on expenses. It's good that municipal leaders are trying to be frugal. But taxpayers still have a right to expect a certain basic level of services.

It doesn't get much more basic than snow removal in the winter.

Methuen City Council Chairman Philip Lahey Jr. thinks the city is spending too much on snow removal and could get by with less. Lahey worked for the city's Department of Public Works for three decades and remembers when they only sanded the main roads and intersections. The city can't afford the "luxury" of having every road perfectly clear, he told reporter J.J. Huggins.

"It's winter. You're not supposed to have bare roads in the middle of a snowstorm," Lahey said. "And if it costs me votes to say that, well that won't break my heart either. It's a reality. You have to cut back."

Lahey should spend a decade or two monitoring our Sound Off calls. He'd learn that few issues light up the switchboard brighter than the quality of snow removal.

A lot has changed in the last 30 years. In most families, both parents work and staying home for a snowstorm isn't an option. That means the roads have to be clear enough for the morning and evening commutes and to get the kids to day care or school.

Snow removal and sanding are basic functions of city government and a necessary part of life in New England. Communities ought to be able to estimate fairly well what they need for the job. Instead, they play games with the snow removal accounts, perpetually underfunding them to make their budgets look balanced.

Councilor Joseph Leone is correct when he says the city need not go to "Code Red" at the first sign of a snowflake — Sound Off callers are frequently irked by the sight of plows kicking up sparks on bare roads. But plowed and sanded streets in the winter are no "luxuries." They are necessities.

People expect their roads will be plowed and salted in the winter. They don't want it done perfectly. They don't want it done haphazardly. They just want it done right.

With all the taxes people pay, that isn't too much to ask.