Snowmageddon Middletown 2015 Blizzard

Main St. Middletown, via  Westfield Fire Commissioner
 Matt Scarrozzo's fb page.

Well, it snowed last night in Middletown incase you didn't notice. Unofficial accounts average 30 inches. The municipal parking ban is still in effect. In a statement on his facebook page, Mayor Drew commented:  “Public works, the water department, parks department, and a dozen contractors have more than 50 vehicles on the road clearing snow, including three industrial snowblowers attached to our bucket loaders.”

“We were fortunate that the snow is dry and light and that has made it easier to clear from our roadways. We are much further along at this hour than we expected to be. However, there is still a lot of work left to do. I ask that you stay off the roads until public works has had an opportunity to clear them completely."

Futher information and future alerts can be found at: . At www.ctalert.gov.

Any questions for both Middletown and Portland residents can be directed to 911@MiddletownCT.gov or by calling the Central Communications Center during routine business hours Monday – Friday at (860) 638-3250.

Got snow pics from around town? Send them to us! Be safe! And hug a plow driver!

Guest Blog: "Blizzard Nemo" by John Milardo

 Below is a essay by John Milardo. All opinions expressed are that of the author and not necessarily that of the Insider staff.

“And Justice For All” is a newsletter involving my opinions, views, and commentary as a life long Middletown resident. In my capacity as a former employee of Middletown (retired) for over 41 years, I have a different perspective regarding how and why public figures do what they do.
Read in its original form here: https://docs.google.com/file/d/1_6qiPEzLwEGx5q0V9sM7aohXBbhbwWYK1oqis-1eOkv8CzybZ1OfGSRO2Fpi/edit?usp=sharing

It’s been about a month since Blizzard “Nemo” struck Connecticut and the northeast area. If you look out, there are remnants from the storm in the shape of large piles of snow, but you can see your lawn now, and spring is only a couple or more weeks away.

Hopefully, everyone faired well during “Nemo” and were able to take care of themselves and neighbors. This is the first time in over forty (40) years I didn’t have to work during a snow storm. Quite frankly, it felt kind of weird to me, being able to shovel my driveway during day light hours, and not at 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning.

While reading the local news during the storm, the only complaints I saw where regarding statements Mayor Daniel Drew made informing the public when all roads would be opened. No complaints from the public regarding the job the City workforce was doing, on the contrary, the citizens praised City employees. The public knew how difficult snow removal was, and they understood it would be some time before the streets were completely opened up. Many roads had only a single plow pass through them, some had none. Quite a few streets were even opened up by local residents with their snow blowers.

I think the thing that irritated people the most about comments made by Mayor Drew were his erroneous statements regarding when streets were going to be plowed and opened. First it was by mid-day Sunday, then late Sunday night. By Monday, there were some streets that still didn’t have one plow pass made through them, and he was stating that all streets were now passable and accessible. One of the most glaring issues for the public during the storm was why Main Street was being plowed and snow hauled away, when many residential streets were being ignored? The first thing you have to understand is that the Mayor is an opportunist and will attempt to grab attention and headlines anytime he can. Secondly, whoever gave the Mayor information for him to announce when City streets would be opened didn’t know what they were talking about. If he made the statements on his own, it only shows he doesn’t know what it takes to get the job done.

Councilman Philip Pessina is requesting Mayor Drew provide the Common Council with a full report of how the blizzard was handled. We’ll see what kind of information he provides the Councilman?

What the Common Council should ask these departments is:
• Did you have the proper equipment to use during the snow storm?
• Did the private contractors all work as contracted to do?
• Is there proper funding in their budgets to stock parts and repair equipment?
• Have the departments Capitol Non-Reoccurring (CNR) budgets been funded properly so
older equipment is replaced when needed, with updated, new technology equipment?

All City employees who worked through blizzard “Nemo” should be commended. They leave their families when there is a crisis, and work in harsh and dangerous situations. The Public Works “City Yard” crew, the Water & Sewer maintenance employees, and the Parks maintenance employees worked collaboratively to complete the job. The Superintendents and Assistant Superintendents of these departments work well together.

Stay strong. Stay involved. Stay together. Seek the truth.

Yours in Solidarity.
John Milardo

Your Daily Spin: Snow Job aka Blizzard of Lies

Today the Mess posted an article of an interview with Public Works committee chair Councilman Todd Berch and Mayor Drew addressing criticisms of the plan of action taken during last weeks blizzard.

Mayor Drew said that the crews were "working around the clock" (didn't he?) but then the public was told that they couldn't plow because of "visibility" issues. Which is it? Were they out plowing or pulled back to City Yard for their own safety?

If the crews were called back out of concern for their own safety as the Mayor has said, why wasn't that part of any of the robocalls the public got all weekend? It would have been a legitimate decision. What is incomprehensible is the duplicity of this administration. This mayor seems incapable of candor; he always has a story when it is totally unnecessary.

It is very clear that a conscious decision was made to pull the trucks off their routes sometime Friday night. Many citizens have said they saw or heard no trucks. Why can't they just admit it? They chose a course of action; now stand by it. Somebody decided that it was better to wait it out and launch a cleanup effort after the storm ended rather than stay in the field and plow while snow was still falling. This, however, was not communicated to the populace even once. Instead, press releases were issued, robocalls went out and pre-recorded messages were put on the City's phones, all making inaccurate representations about the cleanup effort and impossible projections as to when roads would be passable.

Finally, to refresh everybody's memory and provide a little perspective: It is reported that this storm delivered 32" of snow. The December 26, 2010 storm dropped 29" on Middletown. And then Middletown got hit again on the weekend. The city was fully passable within 24 hours; no streets were left untouched. All references to this being the most snow in 100 years notwithstanding, it doesn't explain the marked difference in response.It is recorded that Middletown 29" because that issue was relevant to eligibility for FEMA reimbursement which in fact the City got in 2010.

MEA CULPA: Irony is that that even when confronted with reality, this administration continues down the path that got them in the mess to begin with.  As one anonymous commented on the article said:  
"A humble acknowledgement of their poor and inept planning (or lack of it), combined with an apology and a sincere attempt to improve things next time around would go a long way and help earn back lost respect."
We couldn't agree more.

Parking Ban Still in Effect in some Areas

To assist the Public Works crews with winter snow cleanup, a Parking Ban will continue to be in effect for the following streets until further notice.


Columbus Avenue

Mazzotta Place

Erin Street

Stack Street

Grove Street

Rome Avenue

Pease Avenue

The ban for the rest of the City has been lifted as of today, February 14, 2013, at 3:30 p.m.
Should off-street parking be needed, the following municipal lots will be available:

Melilli Plaza Lot

Broad Street/KidCity Lot

Broad Street/Russell Library Lot

Arcade Upper Level off Court Street Entrance

Arcade Lower Level off Dingwall Street Entrance

Green Street Lot

Grand Street/CHC Lot - available after 7PM Thursday; cars must be

Letter to the Editor: Post Storm Evaluation Report Beneficial

I applaud any effort to review performance in order to find improvements. After-action reviews are a standard practice in business and government to review past operations for ways to improve performance and efficiency. An honest, open review of past operations is a productive, positive way to find improvements, remove redundancies and find gaps. It can provide the basis for an improved response plan for the next emergency. It is not to assign blame. It is evaluation, not criticism. This was a significant weather event. Such events provide excellent opportunities to find improvements, if you're willing to look for them. Or, you can become defensive, and say that you did the best you could, attack the critics, and say that any honest critique of performance is a political vendetta.

Ken McClellan
Chairman, Middletown Republican Town Committee.

Planning and Zoning is Cancelled aka 100% Road Cleared in Town!

Our graphic is based on dozens of comments from citizens. Not one of which criticized the plow drivers at all, nor do we. We don't blame any worker- they did spectacular jobs and labored long hours- of course we are all grateful for it. Whether the "PLAN" they were given by our executive chief of the city was a good one is still up for debate.

MIDDLETOWN: Planning and Zoning cancelled for February 12, 2013- new meeting going on February 27, 2013

The Planning &Zoning meeting scheduled for tomorrow night will be postponed until February 27, 2013 when the roads and lots (hopefully) are fully cleared. This will ensure that all people interested in attending can attend.

 One needs to understand, if the P/Z meeting that was set for tomorrow night did indeed take place a few non - P/Z questions would have to be answered:

1) Where do folks park? The lot behind The Clock Tower Mall hasn't been touched as of 4:00 P.M. on February 12, 2013.
2) Will the city ever plow (correctly) the lot on deKoven Drive?  When one walks by there, they see all cars parked at an angle in a style that Picasso would envy.
3) Will the city leaders (two of them at least) start using a plan that worked effectively before during storms and blizzards?

The meeting will consider two zoning code text change applications that will affect land use on Washington Street and South Main and around Wesleyan and Middlesex Hospital.

Blizzard 2013: Rep. Serra, Lesser, & Bartolomeo Issue Statements

Newsflash: Democratic Representatives  Joseph Serra (former Public Works Director for Middletown, & veteran Public Safety & Highway Committee member) Rep. Matt Lesser, & Sen. Dante Bartolomeo covering Middletown, Durham, Middlefield, Meriden issue the following statement to citizen's concerned about public safety regarding the blizzard and subsequent clean up efforts:

Letter to the Editor: Neighbors Helping Neighbors

Reader submitted photo. Beauty amongst chaos.

To the Editor: 
I was born and raised in a small NH town (Newport),where in the 1950's-60's the snowbanks were so high cars had to tie flags to their antennas so pedestrians could see them coming down the street.The town always maintained some large equipment pieces (road graders,front end loaders),to meet the worst case scenarios in the Winter.Road graders with an old-fashioned v-plow are excellent for "breaking-up" drifts and extreme snow depths.In my recollection,we never hah blocked or impassable roads,and school closings were rare! In my neighborhood,(Colonial Road/Scenic View Drive) we are "open" to Laurel Grove Road.This effort was due entirely to my neighbors........their first strategy on Saturday am was to use snowblowers to "cut" a path between houses and to continue this path down Scenic View to Colonial and ultimately all the way to Laurel Grove Road.It started strictly as an emergence measure to insure access to homes. This whole process was accomplished by only two neighbors on Saturday! With improvement in the weather by Sunday am a crew of two others joined the original two ,and along with a pick-up plow truck "opened up" Scenic View Drive, almost all of Colonial down to Laurel Grove Road.This whole scenario reminded me of neighbors helping neighbors many years ago in NH.What a great site it was yesterday to see the four snow blowers working along side of the plow truck to clear the roads! 
Former Mayor Giuliano was correct in his assessment,in my opinion.

Paul Dodge
Middletown

Editor's note: Former Mayor Seb Giuliano was asked by the Patch about his take on the snow removal strategyg: http://middletown-ct.patch.com/articles/former-mayor-e4b5f14a

Blizzard 2013: Message From Councilman Phil Pessina

As I have been reviewing all of the posts from our city residents stranded and paralyzed by this  Blizzard Event, which as others I have personally experienced, as the Council Minority Leader and member of the Public Safety Commission and Finance and Government Committees I am calling for the following information to be presented to both of these commissions at both of our meetings scheduled for later this month:

1.  That Mayor Drew present the results of his Emergency Management After Action Report, which will detail department by department the challenges that they were presented with, as well as their successes in keeping our community safe and accessible;  the caveat of course are those residents who's streets were not open in a timely fashion; we need to identify them and ensure that in the future we can galvanize private & public collaboration to prevent this from occurring in the future. 

2.   The financial impact on the departments and to the Budget, including the emergency expenditures, repairs to include the private costs for outside contractors support.  This impact report should include a review of our Emergency Vehicle fleet to assess their capability to traverse these types of severe weather events.

3.   The impact on our dedicated city employees covering their availability, food and rest periods which they all needed and continue to need.  A Review of alternate shift schedules with our Labor Union Presidents, where possibly all of our essential employees can have similar emergency shift scheduling to ensure rest, feeding and shelter capabilities.  

4.   The infrastructure prioritization utilized to identify major routes, street clearing and the identity of transportation modes for picking up and transporting hospital critical employees, fire and police personnel ho may have been stranded during the storm.  Also, route clearing to our city's Emergency Shelter (MHS).

5.    Have our I.T. Department propose a frame work on our city's Webpage an area for Emergency Information,which would continued to be update to better inform our resdients of the particular storm impact throughout a weather event; or other infrastructure, emergency events which our city may encounter.

6.    Any other pertinent  information Mayor Drew develops from his meetings with his directors.

 In addition, past Mayors should be contacted for their response suggestions and contributions to assist Mayor Drew.

THESE SUGGESTIONS AND FOLLOW UP REVIEWS BY THESE TWO IMPORTANT CITY COMMITTEES, ARE BEING MADE RESPECTFULLY TO THE MAYOR, OUR CITY DIRECTORS AND EMPLOYEES WHO HAVE WORKED TIRELESSLY THROUGH THIS EVENT FOR THE SOLE PURPOSE TO DEVELOP AN ADDENDUM TO OUR CITY'S EMERGENCY OPERATIONS PLAN FOR RESPONSE GUIDELINES, INFRASTRUCTURE IDENTIFICATION A PERSONNEL PLAN, EQUIPMENT AND COSTS FUNDING ANALYSIS FOR FUTURE MAYORS TO UTILIZE DURING THESE TYPES OF EVENTS! 

WE ALL NEED TO BE PART OF THE SOLUTION AND REPRESENT THE TYPE OF MIDDLETOWN RESIDENTS WE ALL ARE; MOVING TOWARDS ASSISTING EACH OTHER AND HELPING WHEN AND WHERE WE CAN.

Thank you and keep safe!

Councilman Phil Pessina

Editor's note: Former Mayor Seb Giuliano was asked by the Patch about his take on the snow removal strategyg: http://middletown-ct.patch.com/articles/former-mayor-e4b5f14a

The Mess is reporting that the Napa warehouse's roof located on Newfield street has collapsed. No one injured.

Letter to the Editor: The Mayor is Misinformed

Photo by Deb Meadows. Click to enlarge. 

Dear Insider,

Thanks for communicating since the town website is not!  

My husband just walked down the driveway to check (Feb 10, 10:29 pm) and our street (Laureate Drive) is still not plowed.  If we had an emergency, we would not be able to get out.   The town partially plowed the first two houses on our street and left the rest of us buried.   On the attached picture, the arrow indicates where our driveway is.   

They mayor says the streets are 100% open.  Well, he is misinformed!   Yes, my husband did call public works today (Sunday) about 2:00 pm and they said they would get to our street. 

Thanks!

Deb Meadows

Photo from the Past: Blizzard of 1888 Connecticut

This was floating around facebook today: Blizzard of 1888 Waterbury.

Readers: Does anyone  have local  photos of the blizzard of 2010 or 1978?

Middletown Digs Out: Blizzard 2013

Middletown received around 36" inches of snow Friday night into Saturday morning. Luckily, there have been no reported casualties in the area. Staff at the Insider would like to thank the Public Works Department, first responders, fire departments, police, dispatchers, and all others involved in the clean up that is taking place around the clock as we speak.



reader submitted photo of City plows.

reader submitted, high drifts

reader submitted photo, person is 6 ft- snow very high

Little information has come from the Mayor's office as what strategy was followed or what is going on. Nothing on the city website at this time gives any clue, until a post today at 3:30 today. It appears this storm is not as bad as far as power outages & ice as the 2011 snow storm which left many without power  for up to five days. Other towns have updates on local news networks and their city websites, but so far little communication other than a robo call late this afternoon has emerged. , Mayor Drew spoke with Patch editor Cassandra Day and says all roads should be cleared by the end of today. Many residents have reported that their streets have not been plowed at all- over 50 comments have been posted to that article & we have received dozens of emails.

  Downtown is plowed, with a snow pile down the center line of the street being over fifteen feet in height. Several payloaders are loading snow and digging out parking stalls & sidewalks along Main Street. Middletown Public Works have plowed the parking garage adjacent to the courthouse. Residents report that Carabetta's truck (owners of the apartment complexes) sent to plow out Woodbury Circle and Summer Hill  got stuck on the city road into the complex and is unable to be towed out. Several  neighborhoods such as Julia Terrace, Long Hill Estates, Milardo Lane, Lawn Ave., Bailey Road, Maromas, Smith Street, Windy Hill, Cranberry Lane,Brush Hill area, Coleman Rd., and dozens of others have not been plowed. Main arteries close to the city center such as High Street, South & East Main, Randolph Road, Saybrook Road, Russel Ave., Middle Street, Newfield, Washington, and Main were cleared first, with off-shoots remaining unplowed until today. Highways are cleared allowing those who commute outside of the city to go to work on Monday that is if they can get to the highways. Whether all local roads will be passable is still a concern for many at this time.



Blogger SteadyJohn, Washington Street view.

Needless to say, tensions among citizens are running high and reports from City Yard say snow plow drivers are exhausted, but managing and doing the best they can. We appreciate the effort from the plow drivers and encourage readers to be patient. Help your neighbors & stay safe. The Patch reported that the City has two snow plow trucks broken down. In the Patch articles,  In comments on the Patch, people are saying that the City declined to hire private contractors  in anticipation of the storm, that is why things are taking longer than they could have because of staffing levels, others say the delay is shear volume of snow and no amount of preparedness could have changed the outcome. Still others contend because central Connecticut typically does not get this much snow, unlike say Rochester NY or northern Massachusetts, and local equipment is unable to handle this volume of snow - more continuous efforts would have been futile.

readers submitted photo

reader submitted photo

reader submitted, Woodbury Circle unplowed.

reader submitted photo

A message from Councilwoman Kleckowski's (who sits on the Public Safety Committee) facebook page: Good Morning! I have received all your texts, emails and phone calls about your concerns that your roads are not plowed. I have contacted Mayor Drew. Please try to be a bit more patient. I will forward to you any information. Be safe!  Councilwoman Deborah Kleckowski

Many citizens have reported to us that they did not hear plows at all until Sunday or have still yet to see them in their neighborhood. Some criticize that if plows had run continuously throughout Friday night, instead of waiting til the end of the storm as it appears according to residents' accounts we received, they believe things could have gone smoother.  In a robo call at 3:35 pm Sunday, Mayor Drew told residents in the recording that plows have been running since Friday morning around the clock, 85% of streets are cleared, and  he asked everyone to stay off the streets until further notice.

Brush Hill neighborhood, reader submitted

 In Mayor Drew's latest statements on the City website and to Patch he blames pedestrians and  people not obeying the City parking ban as to why clean up has taken longer than expected.
 Bottom line: there is 36 inches of snow out there and no place to put it!  Certainly, a post analysis is called for.

Readers: Please send us your snow photos: middletowninsider@gmail.com.
What do you think of the clean up strategy? Post a comment here or on the Patch articles:
 http://middletown-ct.patch.com/articles/snow-4a1ad139

Thank you to Patch Editor Cassandra Day for the on-going coverage- 7 pm.UPDATE: Mayor Drew has stated to Patch 100% of streets are passable at this time. http://middletown-ct.patch.com/articles/s-ced44c1f#photo-13325207

The City of Middletown Office of Emergency Management's facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/City-of-Middletown-CT-Office-of-Emergency-Management/456465817737649
Last message from OEM: "Attention: Middletown Residents please bear with the plowing, any further question or comment please contact 860-347-2848"