[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Snow removal is becoming a community issue as Columbia County highway superintendents warn private citizens about pushing their white stuff onto neighbors' properties. "][/caption]The Register-Star checked in around Columbia County’s highway and public works departments for a story about how folks on the east side of the river are coping with the large amounts of snow this winter. Lindsay Suchow reports that Hudson Department of Public Works Superintendent Rob Perry thinks the worst is yet to come, and thanked his city's Board of Estimate and Apportionment, as well as the Common Council, for getting his department a new snow blower last year, but also brought up a growing number of mechanical failures triggered by the city's “aging fleet of trucks." Greenport Highway Superintendent Mark Gaylord also said the severe weather has been impacting the department’s machinery, while Copake Highway Superintendent Bill Gregory said his crews are using high amounts of materials, along with overtime costs, and have already used all of the materials it normally uses over an entire winter. All the highway folks, including those at the county, added that a big problem has involved final riddance of the huge piles of snow, with the City and Greenport closing off their own snow pile storage areas to private contractors for the first time, and reminding all private residents that merely shoving their snow onto someone else's property does not a problem solve.


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I Also on that reminder list all fire hydrants need to be cleared for use. Let's hope that groundhog down in Pennsylvania was right about an early Spring, even if it's still at least a month away...