Snow Removal: A Post Mortem

As the snow melts in King Farm (I actually saw grass today!) its time to evaluate the King Farm management’s snow removal efforts. Cleaning up after this storm is going to cost King Farm upwards of half a million dollars and it’s the Board’s responsibility to make sure we got our money’s worth (more later on our options of how to pay the tab for snow removal).

While I believe King Farm did a far better job removing snow from our community’s private streets than the City did on the public ones, there is still much room for improvement.

Earlier today, I received an e-mail from a resident stating that King Farm’s residential streets west of Gaither Road still can’t accommodate two lanes of traffic. I checked it out and he’s right, its still a mess. Granted, several of the streets in that area are in the jurisdiction of the City’s snow removal teams, but the Board needs to work with the City to make sure certain areas of King Farm aren’t neglected.

Another issue I’ve noticed throughout KF is poor sight lines at intersections. The snow is piled so high that drivers cannot see oncoming traffic. There must be a way to keep snow from piling up at these intersections, especially the ones without stop signs or signals. This presents a real hazard in our community, particularly in regards to emergency vehicles.

As for the good, I am glad to see that management made arrangements to dump snow someplace other than the community center parking lot on Saddle Ridge. In years past, the giant mounds of snow were an eyesore for adults and a potentially dangerous, albeit tempting, play area for kids.

A huge problem during the December snowstorm was parked cars making it difficult for removal crews to thoroughly clean up certain streets. In anticipation of this month’s snowstorms, King Farm’s management did arrange for folks who regularly park on the street to use the covered parking at nearby office buildings. I’m not sure how many residents utilized this service, but I did notice slightly less cars parked on the streets near my house during the two big storms this month. However, I think we can do a better job of letting folks know of this option when the next big storm approaches.

The Board will be looking at all these issues and more in the coming weeks, but I’d like to hear your ideas, suggestions, and war stories regarding what worked and what didn’t in regards to King Farm’s snow removal efforts. We survived the winter of 2009-10, let's learn from it too.