TLS EXCLUSIVE: Video Interview And Tour With Public Works Director John Franklin

John Franklin Public works_wmTLS EXCLUSIVEAfter much discussion and confusion regarding the Public Works’ recent cleanup operations of the massive snowstorm which crippled Lakewood, The Lakewood Scoop went down to the Public Works facility to get a first hand look and education. In this exclusive video, the Public Works Director John Franklin answers a lot of questions he read in comments on TLS, and talks about the trucks and sand used in the operations, as well as the cars which complicate the cleanup process.

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49 COMMENTS

  1. Thank you Mr. Franklin. Communication with the public is key and TLS is an excellent tool for you guys to get the word out. Maybe next snow storm the Public Works can utilize TLS to post what streets/zone you want to plow and which sides the cars should park on.

  2. Thank you Mr. Franklin for your explannation, but I still think a “terrible” job was done, especially in the developments.
    Why are all the trucks in the backround sitting idle?

  3. Just wanted to say thanks to DPW and man in truck 3 who helped me get unstuck Saturday night. Everyone else just drived by and hit the horns. Tried to give him tip he refused said he is a public servant.

  4. Mr Franklin,
    As a resident of Carol st, which has signs “No Parking During Snow Removal” signs, the have been no cars on the road since Sat night. The orthodox people also complied to this rule. This being said, there is no reason the road was not plowed until Tues evening.
    I have to hand it to you, the job you did on Tues evening was superb. Yes I had to shovel out my driveway again, but that is just par for the course. Thank You.
    Now that the township did their job maybe all the residents of the block should shovel their walk so that i can walk down the block and enjoy looking at the great job that the DPW did!!

  5. Part of the problem is that the snow began on Shabbos. Usually when the sno starts, people move their cars from the street parking to their driveways (nose out makes it easier to get the car out later) . This time by Motzei Shabbos, it was too late.

    That being said, I appreciate the truck that came down our street last night and shoved the snow over to clear parking spaces so that cars can fit thru. The thing is, it came down twice in the same direction so now only the north sie of the street is clear and the other side still has snow four feet to the middle.

  6. The developments suffer from three issues:

    1) Too many cars, not enough off street parking.
    2) Too narrow streets – no buffer zone to put the plowed snow.
    3) Being LAST on the list of roads to plow (due to the LACs negotiation for Township rather than prvate snow removal).

    Blame our politicians and askanim (old and new) for this – it’s not the fault of Public Works.

  7. Thanks Mr. Franklin. There however is one very big question left after this whole interview: How come after driving through so many other towns & citys which got hit with similar amounts of snow there is such a striking difference in the road conditions between all these towns & Lakewood. You realy don’t even have to go too far to see. Please answer a very simle question: how come the county roads were down to blacktop by early Sun morning the latest & the township roads were not down to blacktop untill Wed.?

  8. “Grateful Resident”

    Please learn to spell, this is not a forum for pre-school.
    If you are thankful than you are greatful, not grateful. the other cars drove by, “drived” is incorrect.

  9. Dont worry all Lakewood streets will be blacktop by next week. We are the same as surrounding towns . Just takes a little longer . What s a few days between friends

  10. State & County roads:

    1. Typically do not have on street parking.
    2. Are wider.

    You’ll notice that the the widest township roads were also down to blacktop by Sunday morning.

  11. Thankf you for co-ordinating with the homeowners of whispering pines to remove the cars , u did a gr8 job .

    thanks to Steve langert Menashe and meir for always being there whenu need them and on top of the situation

  12. Ok how many people actually drove to other towns to look. I have family in Toms River there streets are just as bad if not worse. Think of all the building that has gone on through the town in the last few years. Alot of new streets were added. DPW said they had 30 trucks out clearing the roads. Have they add any more trucks with the added streets. Now how many streets are there in the town. I dont think 30 trucks can get the job perfect when you have 20 inches of snow. So it may be a little hard getting around for a few days. Stop complaning and look around and enjoy the snow for awhile for that is all it lasts.

  13. Our upcoming Mayor and our soon to be Senator Steve Lagert was working hand-in-hand with Director John Franklin told us that there is no reason to be overly concerned, “have some patients in just a few days we are expecting rain and we will then see the blacktop on all Lakewood streets”.

    From the bottom of our hearts we thank you for all your encouragement.

  14. South Jersey, Vineland etc. got hit the same, 2 ‘ plus,it was overwhelming for the crews with tons of senseless complaints. So let’s APPLAUD all the snowplowers for job Well Done, Thanks, Mr. Franklin….

  15. Has anyone here drove to Brick? I have. You can’t even drive on the main roads they are still so full of snow. The Lakewood people did an amazing job under the circumstances. Stop being so spoiled. Nobody plowed my driveway so why should the township plow the development streets which are mostly cluster (not township streets). How about some Hakaras Hatov.

  16. you are not only s-t-u-p-i-d but obnoxious, and overly sure of yourself. it IS spelled grateful There is no such word as greatful. you should get a job as an english teacher in one of the local chedorim.

  17. why was the whole begining of squankum, expecially at the stop sign still so icy THIS MORNING?!?
    There are no cars parked yet still… Monday forest avenue (even the middle – where no cars are parked) was dangerous to drive down. what gives?
    and why were trucks driving around with RAISED PLOWS? still havn’t figured that one out yet… seen it all over town…
    There were also many areas that had no cars and were not plowed well. not the sides and definately not the middle of the roads.
    I just can’t understand…
    if cars are in the way ie. in developments too narrow road (which never understood how developers can get away with that, even for REGULAR weather driving!!) is at least understandable.
    but the main streets, or streets with no cars, or even next to cars parked on wide streets – why is there no black roads?
    7th street (by the public school) was black – 5,6,7,8,9 etc disaster!!

  18. Mr Franklin
    in 1996 we had a blizzerd the snow removal was lousy if I’m correct 2003 also .I recall calling then comitteman Waxman to complain after 5 days and severe icy conditions
    Today the issues are still the same !! excuses of cars being in the way just will not do
    for example Forest ave a heavy traveled roadway was in terrible condition while miller road was squeeky clean
    I am not reffering to the sides where cars are parked yet the packed ice on ALL TOWNSHIP road says the Dept did not live up to serving us
    SALT SALT must be increased rather a pothole then a injury or even a death
    other example our street that contains a sizeable hill was “plowed” by a township PICKUP TRUCK which left in middle cause the snow was too much
    anothe example was QUEENS and KINGS court they had area of more then 50 feet infront of the homes untouched till MONDAY can u imagine a medical emergency or a fire ?????
    Jhon we all need to learn I think its time for you to learn from other towns that do remove snow

  19. 1996, 2003, 2009

    You’re life must be pretty good if you can complain about the difference between taking 48 hours & taking 72 hours to remove 24″+ of snow once every 6-7 years.

  20. Just a thought– why can’t they collect the snow (like they do with leaves) and dump the snow in the lake? That’s what they do in NYC, they haul it to the Hudson River. Just asking if anyone ever considered it.

  21. Just a thought, state and county roads are down to the blacktop yesterday because there are fewer miles of state and county roads in Lakewood then Lakewood roads. They could have hundreds of snow removal trucks, but you need a CDL to operate it. Maybe a laborer that works for DPW has a CDL, but the town or the DPW Director does not want to pay the laborer the difference in pay to operate the equipment. #30, it would be the end of summer before you can load all that snow into dump trucks and bring it down to the lake. Why don’t you go take a hair dryer out to the street and melt the snow and ice, that might be quicker. It is unbelievable how many people lack common sense, like all the people on the road Saturday night after sundown getting stuck in all the intersections. And everybody complaining about the roads, now about clearing the sidewalks so people don’t have to walk in the street and almost get hit by cars. Or clearing all the show off the top of your minivans and cars so it doesn’t break my windshield when it flys off. Thank you!

  22. To TLS Its insult to post a video of him making it sound like everything is so rosy and the only question is. Why aren’t there plows on the garbage trucks or why aren’t they using salt. Open a direct forum where we can post factual questions that you can ask him on camera. If you don’t know a township official or didn’t call 20 times your block still has a foot of snow on it. 9th street by the fire station and squan. What a mess. every place I went till this morning ice and 10″ high snow. As a property manager. I would get arrested in most town for this kind of negligence. Our kids don’t have busses because the PW is so dysfunctional. A old person can walk on the street. Cars are slipping and sliding all over the place. He get up and says a story about plows. GIVE ME A BREAK

  23. #30, in Montreal they truck it away the next day. Then again, they get this every other week, not once in 7 or 15 years. Our guys were dedicated and efficient, especially given the obstacles we placed before them. For the future, people should be more cooperative and less carping and let the pros do their thing. DPW is an asset we should appreciate (& before some yokel tells me so, we DO appreciate EMS too) and John Franklin should get major kudos for jumping into the cab of a truck and putting himself out there for us all. Thanks JF they should name a building after you (oops I guess they already did).

  24. The public works department is a huge waste of money. Private trucks could have had the whole town plowed in a day. We don’t get snow often enough to warrant a PWD. Steve is on to something here. Privatize PW. We would save so much more money than only the EMS. Then do Animal control. I know some greate exterminators that would take care of any animal problem for pennies. And then we could do the ultimate privtization. We could pay other towns to educate our public school kids. They will get a better eduaction and we would pay much less than all the waste that goes on now trying to educate so few kids and most have needs we cannot accomodate. Then we could privatize the busses for jewish schools. There is so much shtick going on in this town. We only see the obvious stuff. Imagine what goes on that we don’t see. The UEZ, Zoning, approvals, the LAC shtick. it is endless. TLS rocks when it comes to giving the public the scoop.

  25. #32: Did you even bother to listen to the interview??

    – They use salt – it’s mixed with the sand.
    – There are no plows on garbage trucks beacuse the mount would prevent the truck from accessing the landfill.

  26. Yes you are on to something. All service costs in this town keep going down as there are more people that do that service. Painters, alectricians. Plumbers. All have gotten cheaper. I am sure we could get almost every job done cheaper every year. And leave the shools to towns that have students. Ship ours to them. Take bids from those towns that will take them. If they have room for them it will be found money for them.

  27. Hey dont give me that cocktail of dirt, salt and whatever. You need those big festeh pieces of salt to get the job done!!
    That being said you guys did a superb job. Thanks

  28. I don’t understand both my childrens buses got stuck on the snow I called the city they said they will come and put salt but of course they never showed up.

  29. John the DPW failed to eficiently clear the roads. Why waste time and money coloring the salt?????
    just put it out on the road and clear the snow did you spend $$26 million with a high tech weatherization system for nothing????n

  30. #11, you are so ignorant, it’s embarassing. And to top it off you’re arrogant too. It looks like you didn’t even make it to preschool. THe only justification I can think of is that your comment is a joke. PLEASE let it be a joke.
    And just a note to other comments, YOU’RE=you are
    YOUR=belonging to you IT’S=it is ITS=Belonging to it

    Maybe if people started writing real english, the DPW would understand what you want!

  31. #39—NO WONDER MOST OF YOU PEOPLE DONT KNOW HOW TO DRIVE, YOU CANT EVEN KNOW THE LAW AND REMOVE THE SNOW OFF OF YOUR VEHICLE, I HOPE YOU ALL WHO DONT REMOVE SNOW FROM YOUR CAR ROOFS GET TICKETS, MINE WAS CLEAR AND I GOT NO TICKET, OR DENTS IN MY CAR FOR THAT MATTER, CAUSE I KNOW THE LAW AND CAN DRIVE

  32. to 45 obviously u didnt listen to the interview. john himself stated it cost more to buy colored salt. just a little. maybe he should say how much that little is

  33. privatize everything! The first year will be big savings as everyone wants to get in on the bid and get the job. The contractor takes a loss the first year. Then you pay through the nose after that because the contractor didn’t make any money, they bid up higher. You (the town) can’t do the job anymore because you sold all the equipement to pay for the first year of service. Now what????? Go back to when Lakewood privatized the school buses. Yes #34, they are already privatized. And if costs more now. Lakewood can’t do it anymore because they sold the buses to pay for it. And then there was bid rigging years back involving numerous bus firms. The only winners are the contractors that get the bid, and of course, their political friends who make the pitch. I’m not a fan of Lakewood DPW, but at least in Lakewood they have bulk pick-up, leaf pick-up, snow plow, patch pot holes, pick up recycling. Go to Jackson, Howell and some other towns around here and you have to pay a private contractor to pick up only what is in your garbage can once a week. The other stuff YOU have to schlepp off to the dump, and you get to pay for it also. Privatize and I bet you won’t get 24/7 garbage trucks for the community before Passover, not free of charge anyway. Neither will a private contractor bring in a 30 yard dumpster for you to burn your bread in. Some people really don’t know how good they have it until it is gone. Maybe we can go back to the old days in Chicago and have Pinkerton agents enforcing the law and hitting people over the heads with billy clubs.

  34. btw. i dont think the public knows that brick township school system is still closed due to the snow, the reason is that they dont have a public works department as good and efficiant as lakewoon. kudos to john franklin

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