Hempstead supervisor to assess response after snowstorm

Hempstead Supervisor Laura Gillen announced Monday that her office would audit the town’s snow removal operations during last week’s storm because the town “can do better.”

Gillen said the report and recommendations would be released within the month. In a news release, she thanked employees from the highway, sanitation and parks departments who worked to salt and plow the town’s 1,200 miles of roadway.

“Nobody can deny the severity of the storm that we experienced, which, coupled with blistering winds, made snow removal a constant struggle against Mother Nature,” Gillen said. “But I, along with many local residents, believe that we can do better. We fully intend to improve our departments by rooting out issues of concern so that our response to the next storm will be improved.”

The commissioners of the highway, sanitation and parks departments could not immediately be reached Monday afternoon.

The review is to include the town’s current staffing and equipment levels, as well as communication and organization between the three departments, the release stated.

Some residents took to Twitter to complain about poor plowing efforts. Some said no one answered their calls to the town for help. Others expressed frustration that Gillen had attended Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s news conference Thursday in Suffolk County instead of staying within the town.

Steve Salerno, 53, of Hewlett, tweeted around 7:30 p.m. Thursday and called the town and county for help. He said a plow didn’t hit his street until 2:30 a.m. Friday.

SEE PHOTOSSnowstorms that buried LI over the past 100-plus years

“I heard the scraping on the street,” he said in a phone interview Monday. “It was the middle of the night when they finally showed up.”

Jane Morales, 46, of the unincorporated area of Valley Stream, said plows came down her street three times between 10 a.m. Thursday and 1 a.m. Friday. She tweeted on Sunday that she saw two trucks drive down her road with their plows raised.

“They didn’t even put the plow down to the snow,” she said Monday in a phone interview.

Morales said the school crosswalks are still covered.

“We do not have blacktop,” she said. “We have mountains of snow.”