UPDATED: 3 Days Later: Lakewood Starting to Dig out; Cleanup Dubbed #Snowgate; DPW Under Fire

nj transit stuck in lkwd snow jan 2016Anywhere you go in town, it’s the topic being discussed – “someone’s got to go.”

First, many were told to have patience as it was a storm of historic proportions. But when that excuse wore off, it became more and more blatant that there are some that are just not capable of handling their jobs when it comes to such storms.

“They have a multi-million dollar facility, and they’re a joke,” was one of the many, many comments we received over the past few days to describe the DPW of Lakewood.

“I’ve been in many other townships around the state – these streets are by far the worst,” commented another.

The big question on everyone’s mind right now, is what is going to change?

Besides for calling for the resignation of the director, and an investigation into the actions of the employees, many are wondering what is being done to prevent such a travesty from occurring again in Lakewood.

“Kids have to sit home from school for a second day in a row because of incompetence? We need to stop sugar coating this,” a Rosh Mosad told TLS.

tls-fans-alertsCommitteeman Lichtenstein tells TLS the investigation is ongoing, and at this point it’s still unclear why the large percentage of DPW employees just didn’t show up, and their equipment just sat idly in the lots.

“At this point we don’t yet know what it was,” Lichtenstein said.

In the earlier exclusive TLS video during the storm, Committeeman Lichtenstein acknowledged that “if it means people will have to find employment elsewhere, that’s what’s going to happen.”

Stay tuned as we bring you the latest on the storm now dubbed “Snowgate”.

[TLS]

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57 COMMENTS

  1. Regent drive was plowed for a one lane street. Poorly done and dangerous getting in and out from Central Ave. Please come back and get it done better. Thanks

  2. Street was half plowed. The problem is that the plows drive up and my block like they don’t know wat they r supposed to do. The could widen the road by moving the snow more to the side. They could plow the corners better then just leaving the snow by the stop sign.

  3. Where is the bussing today? NY received more snow than us, and they had bussing for schools on Monday already. what’s going on? is it because streets weren’t plowed correctly?
    what are we waiting for? a rainstorm to freeze things up and make it even harder to plow?

  4. Martin Luther King Dr. was plowed early Saturday morning, making it from the first streets to be plowed.
    However, much snow fell on Saturday itself and MLK has not been plowed since.
    Currently, MLK is one of the worst streets in all of Lakewood – especially the south part, from John st. to Pine St.
    Please come back a plow this major avenue quickly!!
    Thank you.

  5. We finally got a plow yesterday which didn’t do much considering the snow is already compact and icy. WHY ARE THEY NOT SALTING???? I’m sure it’s convenient to wait for the warmer weather to melt it but we can’t wait a day or two!.

    Anyway, I just want to thank again the only organization that deserves our gratitude and appreciation and that is the scoop.

  6. Granted the DPW messed up but when they finally do come to your street get your car off the road so they can plow curb to curb! In Monsey there’s a law that no one is allowed to park on street in order that snow plows can get thru. Any car parked on street is towed! Lakewood should have the same law- then perhaps our streets would be clear!!!

  7. We had a township plow (big green dump truck, filled with sand to the top) finally come onto our street (Pinemere Ave) at about 12:25 PM yesterday, he got stuck at the corner coming off of West County Line. When he finally got traction, he moved up about 20 feet, put down the plow, barely moved 10 feet and the wheels started spinning again. He then lifted the plow, regained traction and drove off, never to be seen again. No plowing, no sanding, NOTHING!

    And, I’m sure he reported that he “hit” Pinemere Ave. Who’s responsible for this?

  8. Yeah that truck is sitting in twelth on Lexington now for an extended relaxing break with btw 2 workers in the front. Maybe thell drive off for lunch?

  9. I just spoke to a local landscaper
    He told me they would be more than happy to plow for Lakewood township.
    The labor cost for private contractors are probably lower than the township.
    So for the same price or lower why not have private contractors plow
    With real accountability

  10. “Why is Menashe and Mair the only ones talking?”

    Well it’s easy to talk, the question is which of the committeemen are actually doing??
    We may never really know. Maybe all? Maybe none.
    One thing is sure. No one said ‘the buck stops here!’

    That is our problem!

  11. I personally saw a township plow plowing a private parking lot Monday morning!!
    How much of a tip do you think he got??!!
    Took a pic but doesn’t do justice, if I had more time to ease I would have videoed it

  12. Spruce is a disaster! and with all the cars trying to go to all the schools on oak street, you cannot get anywhere!
    I hope they reconsider that brilliant idea to auction off 4-5 lots on oak to more schools! What a joke!!

  13. We had a plow in wesgate and we pulled the cars off the road. 10 minutes later the driver said they called him to go to a street the wasnt even a township owned street.

  14. Driving from Westgate to the other side of lkwd was quite a deal this morning. As previous posters wrote – many roads were “plowed” but only wide enough for one car. So now two way streets are totally jammed as they can only fit one car..causing a lot of traffic jams. I do want to mention that I was car number three crawling behind a very slow driver on north lake drive this morning and no one honked. We all worked on our patience and creeped and creeped until that car turned off on lkwd ave. it looked like a college age girl (maybe attending georgian court?) she was probably so horrified from our roads..I’m so proud of all of us ,myself included for not honking and making a chillul Hashem. It’s ok to be extra safe on an icy twisted road…

  15. Just. Saw township plow in villas. He is incompetent and completely disinterested to say the least! I have seen many who were good at their jobs but this one is horrendous and discourteous and just not interested as was obvious from the way he plowed and the way he acted!

  16. sara manies: brooklyn and other large cities that have successfully dug out are exactly that- large cities. Lakewood is a township and is trying to run like a township when we really should qualify as a large city as our numbers attest to. Until we are considered an official large city like Brooklyn, Chicago or Miami, not much is going to change here.

  17. Even today the plows are inactive. The few plows I have seen in Lakewood today are doing NOTHING. They are driving around with their plows up and not salting.

  18. Its easy to say that cars shouldn’t park on the streets but most new construction nowadays don’t have enough parking in driveways- think each house 2-4 cars each. When i lived in a basement I parked on the grass so street could get cleared but many of the new houses now even have that. Maybe the township shouldn’t allow duplexes to be built in place of one house (that’s minimum of 6 cars in place of one driveway).

  19. Donate $500 to Kupat Hair and a minyan of chashuve talmidei chachamim will spend 40 days and 40 nights calling menashe miller to get your block plowed!

  20. change from last big storm.

    Major intersection and cross streets such as 7th and park were not cleared until last night except for 1 lane even at the actual intersection.

    Park itself is a little better now, but still only plowed to about 5 ft from curb which is crazy for Park which is not so wide to start with

  21. I heard that BMG paid a private contractor to plow and propertly clean all the streets the Yeshiva has a building or a dorm on..
    6th st 7th st forest and Lakewood
    9th st. 10th st Madison and Clifton
    10th & Carey between forest and Madison
    7 th & 6th between Princeton and tracks
    BMG you are the best !!! you are a symbol for all of Lakewood and klal yisroel !!

  22. Reading the scoop I thought some people were over-reacting, that is until I had to go somewhere this morning. This morning I was driving down 7th street, it was a total disaster. I wouldn’t consider it such a “side street” but I guess I was wrong. There was about 1-2 inches of uneven snow on the road (making a very bumpy and dangerous drive) with 2 way traffic and people walking in the streets!! This was SO dangerous as I was scared my car can swerve and hit a pedestrian (I was driving very slow), thankfully that did not happen, but it is scary to think about and if that does happen would it be the driver’s fault or the townships for not properly plowing? This is already a few days after the Storm! Also there was a Police on one of the streets as it seemed like he was involved with a van that kept getting stuck (although I am not totally sure), I really wanted to ask him if a plow was coming to do the street but he looked busy. I drove a little more and guess what I saw, a plow, but before you get excited let me tell you it was PARKED!! What is wrong with this picture I ask, this makes no sense. It took me about 4 times as usual to get to my destination. Additionally my husband told me when he was walking to shul on shabbos he saw 3 plows that had their shovels up, why I ask! We deserve answers!!

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