Lakewood Mayor Albert Akerman provided TLS with the following statement this evening in response to the complaints of the seemingly-untreated roads in Lakewood today:
“I apologize for the icy roads. This was a very unique snow because it was followed immediately by freezing temperatures. Salt is not effective when temperatures drop below 20 degrees.
After consulting with our Public Works Department, they determined that the best way to handle the storm was to salt and not plow. When they plow there is still a layer of snow left on the ground that gets very compacted. The more compacted the snow is, the harder it is for salt to have an affect on it.
Temperatures were expected to stay above 20 degrees for the duration of the afternoon but dropped below 20 unexpectedly. The result is that the salt that was spread was ineffective.
Local roads are very different than state roads such as Route 9 and Route 88 or county roads such as Countyline, Central and Cedarbridge. State and county roads are more heavily travelled. When there is heavy traffic, it causes the snow to warm slightly and gives the salt more time to have an affect on the snow.
I apologize that the streets are not clear. I have been in touch with public works over the course of the day and will be meeting with them to discuss what can be done to clear up the current mess, and prevent this from occurring in the future.”
[TLS]
But why not plow???
WHAT ABOUT NOW?????
MWhy not put trucks on the road NOW!!!???
I want to thank the mayor for doing a great job The town of Lakewood really appreciate you and look for for having a full Goodyear with you thank you thank you
Thank you for letting us know what is going on. I think someone at public works should get fired over this!
Np Excuse Lakewood Should from NYC look in Boro Park all the streets are Paved & salted If there’s a will there’s a way
Dear Mayor, we are not worried about next time we are concerned about NOW when it is a dangerous mess. The excuse is not acceptable.
You can not push Ice. Having a lot of cars on the road prevents us from getting the salt to penetrate the ice when the temperatures warm, if they warm. There is too much traffic sometimes to make an treating of the roads effective by throwing salt or mix down. It is also hard to get down streets that are heavily parked on. If you have a driveway please use it. It makes all the difference. When I can get my truck w/my big plow down the street.
Thank you in advance.
They should have plowed. At least the roads would have been smooth.
Excuses excuses.. This is a sakana … We need results Now! I believe this is a serious problem that must be solved
That is an excuse, not the reason.
Take a tour, drive to other towns, look at state and county roads, how were they Able to do it when Lakewood can’t?
Yes I heard the excuses last year, it is hard to plow developments because cars are parked on the road etc, however go look at the other roads without cars parked? Want not in a development.
This isn’t a beauty issue, this is pure scanos nafeshos. This is a danger to life. An accident is serious.
What will happen tomorrow with yeshiva? Is someone from the township willing to take the responsibility?
Some people are not very smart & post comments without reading the article. The article says that when they plow it leaves a layer of compacted snow & harder to salt. Therefore the professionals at public works decided not to plow. So everyone wants to know why didn’t you plow?? Duh.
The real question here is why when you plow does it leave a layer? The answer to that is that they lift the plow 1 inch off the surface which is 2 inches lower than it used to be thanks to menashe miller. The reason they don’t want to touch the surface of the road is because it damages the asphalt. So if you wanna complain you can complain about the decision to not plow well to preserve the roadway.
Please mr. mayor explain why the roads in the neighboring townships were able to plow.
That is not true. Since the federal roads(such as route 88) were plowed right away And salted. I drove on the roads and they were Clear and easy to drive on. It’s about priorities and apparently clear roads are not at the top of the list.
Someone should be fired over this. Every time a different excuse. There is no excuse for this township ignoring these storms.
Period.
Thank you Mayor Akerman. Your appreciated and underpaid
If they would have plowed, it would be a sheet of ice by now. I pick snow over ice any day of the week.
By the way, I do trust professionals to do their job properly.
They generally do a magnificent job. As the Mayor stated, this time was much more challenging.
I am a close friend of the mayor and I trust he is doing the right thing.
Mayor keep up hard work.
@ ANON 11 FEBRUARY 15, 2015 AT 8:06 PM.
Why did other townships make a different decision? it was the same snow that fell?
Why did the county and state make a different decsion? do they have different types of roads?
Only– if the state or county mess up there will be an inquiry about the response.
In this town, if they dont plow— Ahh we saved another few bucks.
I was in Brooklyn today where temp. We’re even colder and all three streets were clear…no excuse
Very interesting. Somehow, I think Chicago, Montreal, and Toronto, all very cold cities, have figured out how to plow… But not Lakewood…
Yup. Your tax dollars at work.
Bunch of whining crybabies on here.
To # 20 Raintree. Brooklyn did not get snow this time. I spoke to a Flatbush resident this morning who said the sidewalks got a dusting of snow & no snow at all stuck to the streets.
Anyone that traveled to neighboring townships, kindly post how the conditions are there. Thanks!
The reason the streets have not been plowed is an cost saving move in order to at least have the roads smooth for a few days as the compacted snow is a natural source to fix the massive pot holes and cracks with the natural source of snow and ice. I can’t remember driving down ridge Avenue and having such a smooth ride without having my tires slam into a deep pothhole or need to the need to swerve to avoid them. There are usually so many bumps on ridge. Today drive was the best it’s ever been. Keep up the great work lakewood public works and our professional and devoted political machine.such engenuity. What more can we expect from our tax dollars. – See more at: https://thelakewoodscoop.com/2015/02/was-your-street-cleaned-yet.html#comments
Chill Mr Raintree. Brooklyn hardly got a coating, I was there today. Garden State Parkway was a disaster as well. Once you hit Staten Island there was no snow in sight.
Thank you Mayor!!
You get what you pay for!!!
Folks, let’s be reasonable. The township employees work hard during the year. I’m sure they were looking forward to an extended holiday weekend. I think we can deal with a couple of inches of snow for a day or two.
I was in other townships and they were all the same. Toms River and Jackson.
As Canadien this excuse sounds like my do ate my homework. The Temps can be below 20 for a week & we have alot cleaner streets than you have here when the Temps are in the 30s
And BTW the salt on my driveway worked great and yes I put it out at 4:00 in the afternoon when you claim it couldn’t work
forget the township roads. How could the county leave Cedar Bridge in such bad shape in Lakewood and yet have it so clean in Brick? Conspiracy! I want my tax dollars back.
The problem isn’t plowing vs. salting. The problem is that I have yet to see the trucks out doing either. Have you seen a single plow out today salting OR plowing?
I was in BOSTON today and drove back and they had 14 inches of snow with every street plowed in brick township plowed in Howell plowed but LAKEWOOD OUR HOLY PUBLIC WORK they know better
Ashley Avenue needs TLC now.
What a bunch of complainers, you think you can do it better… go run for Mayor. Till then stop judging from your limited knowledge.
It’s called a holiday weekend, nothing more, nothing less. And any time there was no good excuse for not being plowed, I would assume it was a holiday for Lakewood township employees. Frankly, I’d be celebrating every day if I worked for this wonderful town.
To gabi
As I said the decision this town made that other towns didn’t make is & has been a standard practice in this town for decades. They don’t lower the plows to the surface. & that’s the issue.
So bottom line is, that it seems like our friends in the neighboring townships figured out how to get the streets clean. Lakewood however, is another story…
They dont plow to the surface because it damages the roads. Most of the roads in this town are due to be replaced. Not fixed by “pot hole patrol”. Public work, dont repair. REPAVE.
It don’t have nothing to do with the long weekend, as a dpw worker if we are not called in to go to work there’s nothing that we can do. So if you want to blame somebody and point fingers, blame management. We are the ones always getting blame for everything but we only follow orders, if we are told not to drop the plow and only put salt that’s all we are doing. But the orders are coming from the Superintendent and then the supervisors. So Mr.Ackerman next time I invite you to come to dpw and hopefully we have an happy ending.
i live in Monsey where it is considerably colder and amazingly enough the roads are cleaned… this is obviously a money saving tactic.
To the commenter that was in brooklyn , there was no snow accumilation there , thats why you didnt see any !
Thank you mr mayor for tring to keep us in the loop and keep up the good work !
Howell, Jackson and Brick had clear roads. I doubt this was deliberate neglect or a decision to save money; simply and purely not good judgment on the part of public works. Perhaps consultation between the towns would be a good idea when such decisions need to be made.
I am sorry, but any layman could have easily judged that this snow was very “plowable”. All it took was one look to see that it was light and fluffy and would not compact easily. In fact, and CHILD could have told you that it was not good snowball making snow, and would not compact easily, certainly that was the case in the A.M. and early afternoon! Either the person/people who made this decision did not actually leave their house when making this decision, or they were not in the Lakewood vicinity.
Jackson roads were just like Lakewood roads in the morning by afternoon they were better.
Mr. Ackerman-
UNACCEPTABLE.
ANY EXCUSE…..IS TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE.
@mspero boston was not this cold. When lakewood has a big storm they clean it nicely too.
@lkwd driver. I’m from Montreal and there it stays cold so it’s easier to work with them when it jumps from 35 to 0 and back over the course of 48 hours. Also have you seem the type of equipment they use there in Lakewood. Lakewood is NOT set up to deal with big storms.
So let’s stop complaining and leave the decision making to the professionals ( btw they are also human and can make mistakes). And let’s thank the DPW and the mayor for all they do for us on days we don’t have what to complain about. They work everyday!!!!
To lakewood not sure what roads in Brick you were looking at but they are a mess also !! They also did the same as lakewood and only applied salt ..
Well if you didn’t salt and didn’t plow then you saved alot of money on our expence instead of pocketing the money for your bonuses hand us back money of our hefty taxes that you didn’t have to use!!
Are the people in charge of public safety selfish or safe.
Buy a lot on every street,build a garage. instead of another home,park your cars,no spaces with your houze address,Walk home!
Buy a lot on every street,build a garage. instead of another home,park your cars,numberedspaces with your house address,Walk home!
End of story.