Editorial
Snow removal causes concern
December 6, 2007
Old man winter decided to rear his ugly head early this year and seems that some in the community were well prepared while others were not. Considering the fact that there were numerous reports Nov. 30 that there would be a 100 percent chance of a major snowfall Dec.1 makes the fact that some were unprepared inexcusable.
UW-River Falls itself seemed well taken care of, for the most part, as most of the sidewalks were cleared of snow and ice by the time classes resumed following our whiteout over the weekend. There were still some problem areas. One particular path between the Agriculture Science Building and South Hall saw a patch of ice that caused numerous wipeouts. This patch should have been better marked to warn student from possible injury (and embarrassment).
Another issue is that it seemed the university didn’t do much to clear the snow from campus until the entire student body was set to return Monday. Even though UWRF is sometimes referred to as a suitcase campus, with hoards of students leaving on the weekends, that doesn’t excuse the fact that salt wasn’t put down on many of the campus paths until classes resumed Monday.
Another major issue that could be better dealt with is the plowing situation. We feel that the city of River Falls could do a much better job plowing the streets. We realize that it is not an entirely easy task to keep the street completely clear, but the fact that a lackluster job was done with the Dec.1 snowfall made the streets much worse when the city was doused with another batch of white powder Dec. 4, making driving on city streets a dangerous proposition. The plowing situation is only made to look worse when local residents cars and driveways become completely blocked in by snow that is “removed” by the plows. We thought that plowing the streets was supposed to be a service the city provided its citizens. Instead it creates extra work for them.
All we are proposing is that the city and university take a little extra care and time into providing the services that we pay for as citizens, so we aren’t left out in the frigid conditions shoveling ourselves out.