Seriously, this is not a rhetorical question. Is there anybody actually running this town or are we on auto pilot?

Who makes decisions on what sidewalks get shoveled? And in what order? And what criteria do they use to choose the order? Wouldn't public safety be the very first concern? Shovel the most used, most important walks first? Wouldn't a bridge be most important so that on a very busy bridge (or an underpass as the case may be), a pedestrian wouldn't have to walk in the roadway with cars and trucks?

I am livid tonight! Absolutely out of my mind livid!

I had to run an errand in my truck tonight, a trip to the store and bank. Normally I would walk, but I had to deliver an instrument to the music shop.

I like to walk around town for exercise at night, so I drove the route I planned to walk later to check out the sidewalk situation.

Mill Street was my first disappointment. The Mill Street bridge and sidewalk on each side of it was NOT SHOVELED. Nor was the sidewalk between Hilton Street and Foreman. Nor was the Foreman Street bridge .... NOT SHOVELED. The underpass at the end of Main Street Bridge .... NOT SHOVELED. Nor was the walkway on Barbour is it? NOT SHOVELED. Nor was the sidewalk near the medical building behind the public library, NOT SHOVELED.

We have several major walkways in town not shoveled, and the snow stopped falling sometime last night! All day today pedestrians had to push their way through knee deep snow, and in places it was thigh deep!

But then I found a walk way I expected to be unshoveled, but was clear down to the bare pavement! The clearest sidewalk in Bradford! (SEE BELOW!)


Sidewalk heading toward City Hall near Post Office- NOT SHOVELED!


Underpass at the end of Main Street north side- NOT SHOVELED!


Underpass on Main Street south side- NOT SHOVELED! (Buried fire hydrant)


Other side of underpass near Tops, a very busy pedestrian walk- NOT SHOVELED!


Foreman Street Bridge- Used by many walkers- NOT SHOVELED! VERY DANGEROUS!


Between Hilton and Foreman- many pedestrians use this- NOT SHOVELED!


Mill Street Bridge- very dangerous! Busy pedestrian walk way- NOT SHOVELED!


Mill Street bridge- very narrow, busy and NOT SHOVELED!


Sidewalk near Mill Street Bridge- NOT SHOVELED!


Barbour Street behind medical building- NOT SHOVELED!



Barbour Street sidewalk- NOT SHOVELED!


Behind medical building on Barbour Street- pedestrians climbed over waist deep snow- NOT SHOVELED!




Mill Street Bridge - NOT SHOVELED!



AMAZING! The ornamental, "BRIDGE TO NO-WHERE" SHOVELED DOWN TO BARE PAVEMENT!


The bridge that isn't even officially open yet is shoveled right down to the deck!

This just floored me! I drove and walked all around town and found sidewalk after sidewalk, and bridge after bridge not shoveled, but then when I got to the *NOT OFFICIALLY OPENED YET* Bradford's own, ornamental BRIDGE TO NOWHERE, the dam thing was shoveled down to the bare pavement! THE ONLY BARE PAVEMENT IN TOWN I MIGHT ADD!

Who, pray tell decided to shovel the unopened bridge to nowhere BEFORE major thoroughfares that are used by many, many pedestrians in very busy areas? Walkways that lead to and from downtown, MAJOR ROUTES like Main Street, Foreman/Hilton Street and Mill Street, are unplowed as of 5:30PM Thursday night, and the dam, ornamental, unopened, redundant, bridge to nowhere was shoveled better than any spot in Bradford! PLEASE tell me that the city did not do this!

The bridge to nowhere was bare, while pedestrians had to risk life and limb to cross the Foreman Street Bridge, the Mill Street bridge and the access to Main Street, and Barbour Streets, just to name a few! How did this happen? Who is in charge?

Can we not do better than this?

Code enforcement will fine you if they don't like you and your sidewalk isn't shoveled though.

Well, to be safe, I did mine three times in the past 24 hours! The plow trucks keep going by and burying my freshly shoveled walks!

Are you sure you have that right about Code Enforcement? I'm pretty sure the new guys are decent guys. I can't see them pulling the old tricks the old crew did. But if you keep your walks shoveled as per code you should have no problems.

Anybody, friends of code enforcement or not should get a fine for not shoveling. The city can certainly use the money. And pedestrians can use the sidewalks shoveled!

Great photo essay, Stony! Obviously the City needs to fine itself in some of these places. I would think that the DPW would be the place to start complaining. I keep seeing praise for them on the great job they are doing here. Perhaps that is ill advised. Perhaps the storm at holiday time is overwhelming them. Perhaps they don't give a rats about the walks or have been instructed to only pay attention to the street condition.
I would like to know who shoveled the new bridge! That's a real paradox!

I understand that the DPW has to focus first on plowing roads. Then do the most important side walks first. But by 24 hours after the snow stopped, they should have most of the city sidewalks shoveled. If they can't do it that fast with the crew they have, they need to address getting more man power somehow. Float another bond and hire kids with shovels or something!

Yes, WHO shoveled the unnecessary "bridge to nowhere"? And WHY? AND WHY shovel that bridge before other more important places? Hopefully Sarah and Jeff did it on their own time! ..... Good job by the way!

It's a pet project and once the bridge to no where falls out of favor with whatever genius decided to build it, it too will look like the rest of bradford. Covered in snow and dilapidated. Good post as usual.

Im not sure if 24 hrs after a major snowstorm is enough to expect city sidewalks shoveled, especially with a skeleton crew.

So Citizen, is this the first year that Bradford has been located at this longitude and latitude? Is this the very first year Bradford has experienced snow? I'm just checking!

I'm not blaming the great crew that is doing a fantastic job at snow removal. I'm saying that if the walking publics safety is in jeopardy because of snow removal problems, the problem needs to be fixed. Make arrangements to hire enough people to get the job done when the job needs to be done! And second, DON'T SHOVEL REDUNDANT, ORA MENTAL BRIDGES UNTIL THE IMPORTANT ONES ARE DONE FIRST.

Two simple concepts! Do important streets and sidewalks first, and hire enough people to get the work done! This wasn't Bradford's first snow storm ever. The city shouldn't act like it was!

Forman Street bridge and Mill Street bridge: pedestrians crossing it can either try to walk on the unstable, slanted, snow covered walk (over knee deep chunky, icy snow) and risk tumbling under the wheels of a passing car or truck or walk in the traffic lane (as most choose to do) risking getting hit by a car or truck.

Those needing to cross the Tuna in the vicinity of Pine Street had two other shoveled bridges to cross!

Why not get the skidders off their lazy asses and give them a shovel? Let them earn their free money,or would that infringe on their rights?

You mean like make an easy rule like if you live in subsidized housing (welfare housing) that you are responsible for shoveling your walk and the walk in front of your unit? They DO make them mow their own lawns ... why not shovel walks. THEN to make sure the lazy asses DO shovel withing 24 hours as per city code, EVICT them if they do not!

To the wellies, landing a tenement apartment is quite the score. It's either a South Center/Kwanas Court apartment or renting from Edna! So the threat of eviction should be a motivator.


I hope CE is haning out "no shoveling" tickets today!

Aren't they too busy laying on their couches playing video games, eating Cheetos, drinking Mountain Dew, planning their next tattoos, and breeding future welfare recipients to shovel snow?

Put plows on the wellie buggies. That will clear the roads (favored path of travel for wellies) and free up city workers for sidewalk clearing.