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Snow Removal

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A car buried in its driveway during the snowstorm earlier this month. Photo by Bill Landon

 

Anthony Portesy

Another storm in Brookhaven, another botched snow removal. How many times must residents be forced to deal with such incompetence when it comes to snow removal? Potholes and snowdrifts don’t care what political party you belong to. In the Town of Brookhaven, the superintendent of highways is elected in an at-large election, rather than appointed, as is the case in many towns in which a department of public works exists. In both of my bids for Brookhaven Town highway superintendent in 2017 and 2019, I openly criticized why pay-to-play practices are eroding our roads and quality of life and the status of the Highway Superintendent as an elected position is a large part of the systemic plague eroding the department’s accountability.

The fact of the matter is this position should be filled by appointment, rather than election. Many decisions on infrastructure need to be based on 10- and 20-year capital plans, and the sobering reality is that elections force a short-term vision that channels reelection interests over long-term planning. It is why we have cheap “mill and fill” paving jobs, rather than full-depth reclamation projects to address underlying structural integrity in roads. If John Q. Public sees roads getting repaved, many do not know that pricing decisions like asphalt composition and curb milling have a long-term impact as to whether the roads will crumble after three years or last for 10 years.

The reality is that towns on Long Island that have elected highway superintendents have structural deficiencies in projects that develop due to the pressure of electoral races. Towns like mine, Brookhaven, should put up for referendum whether to convert their highway departments to DPW formats. None of Nassau’s towns elect highway superintendents, but with the exception of Babylon and Islip, all of Suffolk’s towns do.

In many jobs, what we want is competence. Voting for a town clerk, a county treasurer or a highway superintendent based on politics and party affiliation makes no more sense than choosing an airplane pilot based on those criteria. The current system creates nests of patronage and homes for unqualified political hacks that harm both our governmental structures and the residents who need their services. For instance, what gives my highway superintendent the capacity to lead a highway department when his résumé includes a short stint at New York State Assembly, a Suffolk legislator and, before that, a claims adjuster for State Farm Insurance.

The position of highway superintendent is a job that requires expertise in equipment purchasing, operation and maintenance, emergency management and personnel. The elected town supervisor should pick a person with an engineering background to oversee the department and suffer the lash of voters if he or she picks an incompetent one. In Brookhaven, we get the finger-pointing roulette, where town Supervisor Ed Romaine (R) points the finger at Dan Losquadro (R), who in turn points the finger at the supervisor.

We need to look at all jobs, at every level of local government, to determine if political philosophy plays any part in how they should be done. Where it doesn’t, voters should pass referendums making them appointive positions — and punish the elected leaders doing the appointing if their choices fail.

Part of my goal in running for this office twice in Brookhaven was to draw attention to the issues that plague my local highway department, problems that have led our roads to look like they belong in Beirut, instead of Brookhaven. Unfortunately, a well-funded incumbent with a campaign war chest in excess of at least $400,000 makes a political upset nearly impossible with the incumbent able to blanket the airwaves with radio ads and your mailboxes with glossy mailers by the dozens. As a result, the status quo becomes calcified. I had never intended to run the department like my predecessors had I won the election. Rather, I had intended to immediately move the town board to propose to eliminate the position in a referendum to the voters. The position of highway superintendent in my town is one plagued by political patronage, and as I said in both of my campaigns, “Politics has no place in pothole repair.”

Anthony Portesy, of Port Jefferson Station, is a private attorney who ran for Brookhaven superintendent of highways in 2017 and 2019.

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A plow trying to clear the roads during the first snowfall of 2021. Photo by Bill Landon

In recent weeks, two large snowstorms have hit Long Island back-to-back. While Town of Brookhaven Superintendent of Highways Dan Losquadro (R) said the town is doing well, when it comes to plowing and cleaning up, some residents say otherwise. 

Melissa Neff of Port Jefferson Station said she has lived in the Town of Brookhaven her entire life and never saw the roads this bad. Her complaint is typical of many residents.

“Ever since I could remember there’s always been plows going up and down the streets,” she said. “It doesn’t have to be perfect, but it needs to be drivable.”

Losquadro said all of the town’s vehicles are equipped with GPS, which shows him the times the plows go to each area. 

“During the day we had people calling us on Monday insisting we didn’t plow,” he said. “But when you had snowfall rates of 2, 3, 4 inches an hour and plows go through areas with 40-to-50 miles-per-hour winds, they got completely covered.”

And with the larger storm that occurred the first week of February, that he said lasted more than 30 hours, he claims he met his goal. 

“Within 24 hours of stopping, my goal is to always have every road passable — not pushed all the way back to the curb — but to have every town passable,” he said.

But Neff said she lives on a main road, right off of Route 347, and it was not passable. 

“I’m an essential employee — I have to go to work,” she said.

And when she did, she said, she ended up damaging her new car thanks to a block of ice that was not pushed far enough aside. 

“To see the roads like that and to damage my car — that’s not how you thank essential employees,” she said.

Neff said she is mad and wants answers.

“The taxes we pay in the Town of Brookhaven should cover all of the Town of Brookhaven. … We have a much larger town, and you should have enough taxpayer money to clean a town of this size.”

A car buried in its driveway during the snowstorm earlier this month. Photo by Bill Landon

Losquadro said that he had approximately 200 highway employees working in the field during Sunday’s latest storm. Due to the COVID-19 crisis, about 10 of his workers were quarantined. He added that after the first big snowfall, within days he was on the phone with vendors trying to secure additional equipment. 

“Because of the complications of two back-to-back storms, there were some areas we still are working on — but that was just because 22 inches of snow came down in one week,” he said. “That’s a little bit irregular for Long Island. We don’t deal with it frequently, especially over the last two years where we haven’t had a lot snow.”

Losquadro said that he thinks people have gotten “spoiled” with the lack of snowfalls the last couple of seasons.

“This is Long Island, New York. We can get very little snow, or we can get a lot of snowfall,” he said. 

Neff said she believes that he needs to reach out to more private contractors.

“He has the money for it,” she said. “I don’t know what he does with the money, but he should be reaching out to more private contractors before the snow occurs and pay them on time, so they come back to Brookhaven during the next storm.”

Losquadro responded that the number of available hired contractors is down because of several reasons. He said the lack of snowstorms over the last couple of years has played a part: Outside contractors have gone out of business due to equipment maintenance and insurance; insurance policy rates for plow endorsements have gone up; and the pandemic. 

But Neff said COVID isn’t a good enough excuse for poorly plowed roads.

“COVID is not the reason,” she said. “Other towns have been able to plow and clear their roads better than Brookhaven has.”

Losquadro said that he knows people are unhappy when plows push snow into freshly shoveled driveways.

“My staff don’t have a good answer for that other than its your responsibility as a homeowner,” he said. “Private residences are responsible for cleaning their own driveways including where it meets the roads.”

A shopping center in Shoreham covered in snow. Photo by Bill Landon

He said that snow removal in the Town of Brookhaven has many moving parts. The crews make the roads passable, and day-by-day continue to widen and maintain the impacted snow on the sides of the streets. 

“I don’t think there is anyone who likes shoveling compacted snow,” the highway superintendent said. “It’s just something you have to do when you live in the Northeast. I think that social media and the instant gratification world we live in has led a lot of people to post things and create an unreasonable expectation of a time frame that’s just not obtainable.”

He’s asking residents to be patient.

“What’s the alternative? Don’t plow the roads?” Losquadro said. “We’re going to keep continuing to do what we do, and I hope people appreciate the number of hours and hard work and exhaustion that the men and women who are doing this work put in during and after each of these storms.” 

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Town of Huntington snow plows. Photo by Victoria Espinoza.

Huntington Supervisor Chad Lupinacci (R) assured residents that town employees are ready on standby to react to whatever Mother Nature has in store.

Huntington’s Highway Department has 16,000 cubic yards of salt and sand set aside in its yards to be spread on its more than 800 miles of roadway, according to the supervisor. The town has are 129 pieces of snow removal equipment and has called in approximately 150 additional contractors who will start lining up Tuesday night.

“They are on call and will usually come in about an hour and a half prior to when the storm is anticipated to to get equipment ready, plows ready and load the trucks,” Lupinacci said.

The National Weather Service is predicting snow is likely to begin after 4 a.m. March 7 totaling approximately one inch, according to its website. There’s a possibility drivers could see a sloppy commute as snow mixes with sleet and rain, with total of 2 to 4 inches on the ground before turning back to snow after 10 p.m. Wednesday.

The supervisor said town officials are keeping a close eye on potential flooding in the North Shore villages. Weather forecasters are calling for the 2:50 a.m. high tide to be 1 to 2 feet above normal, according to Lupinacci, with wind gusts of more than 40 miles per hour.

“We will be in touch with our village mayors along the northern coastal areas, particularly Lloyd Harbor and Asharoken, to make sure there is no flooding,” he said.

Residents are strongly encouraged to move their cars off the streets to aid in snow removal. In addition, the superintendent asked those who shovel to throw snow into their yards where possible, rather than the street to allow cleanup to progress as quickly as possible.

Huntington officials will be posting updates throughout the storm on town website at www.huntingtonny.gov. Residents with emergencies or cleanup complaints can call 631-499-0444.

PSEG Long Island is also taking steps to prepare for the nor’easter.

“PSEG Long Island personnel worked tirelessly to restore power to all customers’ affected by the severe storm last weekend and are ready to respond again for the impending nor’easter,” said John O’Connell, vice president of Transmission and Distribution at PSEG Long Island. “Our workforce is performing system checks and logistics checks to ensure the availability of critical materials, fuel and other supplies.”

To report an electrical outage and receive status updates Text OUT to PSEGLI (773454) or to report an outage online visit www.psegliny.com.

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Winter is here on the North Shore, and Brookhaven Town is upgrading their system to handle snow removal. FIle photo by Alex Petroski

The Town of Brookhaven is embracing the modern age to help prepare for severe weather.

With snowstorm season fast approaching, Highway Superintendent Dan Losquadro (R) is making it a whole lot easier to clear roadways with the roll out of a new app designed to help foremen streamline the process of contacting hired drivers and achieve efficiency through technology.

The “call-out app,” created by Losquadro and staff in the Division of Information Technology, will do away with the old system in which foremen had to go to their offices and make calls to each individual driver to confirm who was working, what town to respond to and what time their services would be needed. With 1,194 active snow removal vendors throughout the district, that process could take up to four hours — precious time that could be better spent plowing the streets.

A test done on Brookhaven Town Incident Management shows which vendors have and have not responded to call-outs. Image from Brookhaven Town

With the new app, drivers provide their cell phone numbers and email addresses, and from the comfort of their iPads or iPhones, foremen can simply send a text or email about the specifics of the job — what yard to report to, what equipment or vehicle to use, what time to start — and get instant yes or no responses as to who’s available to work.  Foremen are able to see, in real time, who is coming in, who isn’t, and can dictate how many total vendors will be in specific areas.

Address hyperlinks are also included, so with the click of a button, the driver is brought directly to a map with directions to the given job site.

By automating the process and having such an immediate call-out, snow removal vendors can get to roads faster by several hours, saving the Town and its residents time and money.

“There’s no reason government needs to be archaic and not operate with the same technology that we’re using everyday of our lives outside of government,” Losquadro said. “I’ve been striving to bring us into the modern age, and this is just another step toward that. This is technology that everyone is very comfortable and well-acquainted with. The app is going to make us more efficient; we can actually spend our time doing the work that needs to be done.”

Losquadro introduced and trained supervisors and field workers on a custom-built, electronic work order system last year, developed a system to track work orders during severe weather the year before that, and is currently in the process of making an electronic time sheet program that will keep track of work hours operational before the end of this snow season.

A test email of what a call-out would look like. Image from Brookhaven Town

He said he and the IT staff have been able to build these programs in-house, rather than go out to consultants and spend thousands of taxpayer dollars. From concept to reality, the call-out app took roughly four months to get off the ground and functions on an Apple-operating system, making it as user-friendly as possible. The app can run on desktop computers, tablets and iPhones.

Matt Sabatello, an IT staff member, said a test of the app was conducted in early December and feedback from foremen has been incredible.

“The app allows for better decision-making for foremen,” he said. “It gives them a good idea of which vendors are responding to work in what areas and, if need be, allows them to react immediately to reassign a vendor to an area that nobody may have been calling in about.”

With Brookhaven being such a large township, Losquadro said “there’s no reason we shouldn’t be leading the way.”

“I’m very proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish,” he said. “I’ve had a lot of ideas about what I’ve wanted to do, and being able to [see them through] has been very satisfying. The app is a fully live and operational system and, God willing, I won’t have to use it that much this year.”

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Supervisor Frank Petrone speaks on the highway department's preparation for the winter season on Dec. 11. Photo by A.J. Carter.

Winter is coming — and the Huntington Highway Department is ready for it.

In an effort to make the season as seamless as possible, the department has bulked up its winter arsenal with additional dump trucks, refurbished old ones and updated and digitized response services to make the town more accessible to residents.

Highway Superintendent Pete Gunther said the operations center was recently enacted within the highway department to make the town more productive when responding to residents’ requests for assistance services such as plowing. He said residents could simply email the operations center through the town’s website if they require help, where foreman will be notified via iPads to keep them up-to-date on service requests.

“We’ve become really automated now,” Gunther said at a press conference on Friday. “Anything that comes into the operation center can be immediately routed to the area foreman — whether it’s snow or a storm — and take care of whatever the problem is.”

Town Supervisor Frank Petrone (D) said that the department’s efforts are a true example of what Huntington can do when there is cooperation, especially with what he called a “most effective” highway superintendent, who Petrone said has done wonders at his job.

“The people have been served very well by Pete Gunther,” he said at the press conference.

Gunther said the town has acquired 10 new dump trucks this year, equipped with plows and sanders that should last between 25 and 30 years. The town also refurbished 10 older dump trucks with updates like stainless steel bodies to remedy damage from salt exposure.

New dump trucks from the Huntington Highway Department with plows on display at a press conference on Dec. 11. Photo by Victoria Espinoza.
New dump trucks from the Huntington Highway Department with plows on display at a press conference on Dec. 11. Photo by Victoria Espinoza.

The Huntington Town Board allocated $260,000 for the stainless steel repairs, according to Gunther, and the project was completed $18,000 under budget, adding 12 to 15 years of service to the trucks.

“He’ll be in his eighth term by the time he has to do this again,” Petrone joked. Councilwoman Tracey Edwards (D) said Gunther and his team planned on bringing the town forward in terms of technology.

“To be this prepared this early without the snow is a testament to your leadership,” Edwards said to Gunther.

As for technology upgrades, the department gained 200 portable GPS devices to give to private contractors who help the department during emergencies, allowing the department to reposition equipment in real-time.

Petrone said the town has also mobilized town workers so that they are available if needed for larger highway department projects.

Gunther also urged residents to not park their cars on the street during a storm, as well as leaving basketball hoops set up in the street, to help make plowing as quick and effective as possible.

Thanks to the improvements and upgrades, Guther said, “We are a more efficient and better highway department.”

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Funding would increase for snow removal, environment

Brookhaven Town Supervisor Ed Romaine. File photo by Erika Karp

By Giselle Barkley & Elana Glowatz

Brookhaven Town won’t ask for more money from residents next year, according to Supervisor Ed Romaine’s 2016 budget proposal.

Romaine (R) revealed his nearly $281 million budget plan at a meeting on Oct. 1, touting its benefits of complying with the state-imposed limit on property tax increases and putting more funding toward snow removal as the winter season approaches.

Crafting the budget was a challenge given the tight limit on how much the property tax levy could increase, according to Romaine — the state’s limit was 0.73 percent this year. Despite that, “I support the tax cap because I understand what the tax burden is on the taxpayers of this town,” Romaine said during a meeting with the press last week. “I’m trying to do my best to limit that tax burden while providing needed services and that’s crucial, and our five-year plan reflects that.”

According to the budget proposal, the town’s property tax levy will not see a net increase in 2016, holding taxes steady for many residents. Romaine was able to maintain the levy because of the amount of money the town will save from satisfying debts. Some of the money that would have gone toward those debt payments was used instead to fund increases in other budget lines. When money from the town’s debt reserve fund is excluded, the budget proposal actually reduces overall spending more than $800,000.

“That’s come from careful management of capital projects and the elimination of pipeline debt,” Finance Commissioner Tamara Wright said during the meeting.

Just as there were cuts in the budget, there were also additions. Romaine proposed bringing the highway department’s snow removal budget up to $5.2 million — a budget line the supervisor and the town board have been adding to since the massive February 2013 storm, frequently dubbed Nemo, that buried Long Island under three feet of dense snow. That removal budget has doubled in the last few years.

“I hope that someday we will have a less snowy winter,” Romaine said.

Town officials hope any leftover snow removal money will be deposited into a reserve account, to be used in an emergency winter weather situation.

The supervisor’s proposal also increases spending on environmental protection and funding for public safety staff, code enforcement and internal auditors, among others.

Romaine’s proposed capital budget totals $62.2 million, a reduction of about 2.4 percent from the current year. The capital funds will go toward local projects like long-awaited athletic fields in Selden and road and drainage improvements.

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