When the department heads spoke at last night\u2019s meeting of the Tyrone Borough Council, highway department head Verden Latchford quoted from Daily Herald General Manager Chris Lash\u2019s column from Friday, February 28.
\n\u201cIt says Local Intelligence by Chris Lash and that could be questionable I guess,\u201d said Latchford. \u201cWhat he had in here about the borough over PENNDOT street, Pennsylvania Avenue, I guess he got the information from the business people downtown. Tyrone never owned Pennsylvania Avenue. We took it over for one year for plowing and that was it and we turned it back over because it was too expensive. That was the year we had the big snow storm and we lost so much money on the deal we gave it back to PENNDOT after that year. It has always been a PENNDOT street, it was never a borough street. I don\u2019t want to get into the rest of it on the count of it will step on some toes down the street.\u201d
\nCouncil member Jim Beckwith spoke up and congratulated the highway department.
\n\u201cI would like to congratulate Vern and his men of the highway department,\u201d said Beckwith. \u201cWe had a heavy downfall of snow and they moved it. Unfortunately, before we could do too much more with it, it froze in place. All the streets in the borough are open. There aren\u2019t many that aren\u2019t plowed wide enough to pass cars on. We have trouble in some places, but that is to be expected. We have some narrow streets.
\n\u201cAs far as Pennsylvania Avenue is concerned, the end is plowed by PENNDOT and the snow was plowed onto the sidewalks by PENNDOT. We have tried in the past, and we will probably try in the future, to try to get that stuff out of there. We have to take care of the rest of the borough before we go downtown and try to get the snow away from the parking meters. The store owners need to help us a little bit.\u201d
\nMayor Stoner interjected that the store owners are responsible for their own sidewalks.
\n\u201cThey are responsible for their sidewalks just as you and I are responsible for ours at home,\u201d said Beckwith. \u201cIf that means digging a path to the car, it means digging a path.\u201d
\nCouncil member Bill Latchford mentioned that Columbia Ancillary Services paid to have someone remove the snow from in front of their business.
\n\u201cAll I am saying I know Vern and his people were out all night, the night of the big snow,\u201d said Beckwith.
\n\u201cThe guys worked 22 hours,\u201d said Mayor Stoner. \u201cWhen Vern sent them home, the guys from the water department came out and behind them the guys from the sewer treatment plant came out. It was a wonderful kind of thing that has always happened. These guys (the sewer department) came out and cleaned all the storm sewers out and opened the storm drains. It was a great job.\u201d
\nBeckwith talked about how tough it is to please everyone.
\n\u201cThe one thing I have learned in the many years that I have sat on council and the many years I have served in the fire department and on emergency management is you can\u2019t please everybody. So we don\u2019t really don\u2019t ask them to try. We get the general public moving and we keep them moving. For those people who are unhappy with the service that they are getting, so be it. They don\u2019t need to read that stuff when they are out there doing a good job.\u201d
\nMayor Stoner added to Beckwith\u2019s comments.
\n\u201cOne thing that I would like to put into effect and if things would have been different this time is the odd-even thing and declare an emergency. By the time I got around to realizing that I had the authority to declare that emergency, people were already digging out their cars and piling these humongous piles of snow in front of their car and behind the car,\u201d said the mayor. \u201cOur snow plows can\u2019t move those large piles. Once they happen, you have to wait for them to melt down. Once they freeze, which they did, you would have to take a drill in there to get them out. Maybe they could dig their car out and pile it on the edge of the sidewalks it would be easier. You only have to leave three feet of sidewalk for people to walk on and we wouldn\u2019t have the tremendous piles along the highway that we can\u2019t move.\u201d
\nThe Snow Emergency declaration happens at three inches of snow, but needs to be declared by the Mayor and hasn\u2019t been declared during any of the snowfalls this winter.
\n\u201cWe aren\u2019t fortunate enough to live in Indiana or Hollidaysburg where you are the county seat,\u201d said Stoner. \u201cThey not only have their municipal plows out but they have the county plows out. They have two teams of plows working in these other communities. The county hauls the snow out for Hollidaysburg. We keep our (borough owned) sidewalks and properties clear. We have someone separately to do that.\u201d
\nThe responsibility of keeping the sidewalks in front of homes and businesses cleared according to the council is that of the individual homeowner or business. Pennsylvania Avenue and 10th Street is the responsibility of PENNDOT and the borough keeps its sidewalks and streets cleared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When the department heads spoke at last night\u2019s meeting of the Tyrone Borough Council, highway department head Verden Latchford quoted from Daily Herald General Manager Chris Lash\u2019s column from Friday, February 28. \u201cIt says Local Intelligence by Chris Lash and that could be questionable I guess,\u201d said Latchford. \u201cWhat he had in here about the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47210\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}