County Executive Checks On Road Conditions

Rockland County Executive Ed Day started his second official day in office getting a bird’s eye view of county roads from a snowplow. He joined Highway Department Commissioner Charles “Skip” Vezzetti on a tour of county roadways Friday morning.

Day gave county personnel high marks for their work clearing roadways, noting that some people had been working for 36 hours straight.

“I’m very proud of the condition the county is in,” said Day.

He said the roadways are still white but as temperatures rise and the sun comes out, the blacktop will visible. Day said if residents do not have to go out, they should stay home and wait until the afternoon.

He asked drivers to yield to snowplows so they can do their job. Day also reminded people not to push the snow from their driveways and sidewalks into the roadway because it slows the street clearing process.   

Vezzetti said Day saw the whole process of getting the plow ready and then riding on it as it cleared South Little Tor Road and Middletown Road.

Vezzetti said all county roads have been cleared from curb to curb and now the crews are spreading salt and liquids to melt the remaining snow. He expects crews to be finished by around 1 p.m. 

County Fire & Emergency Services Director Gordon Wren said people heeded the warnings and stayed home Thursday night. He said there were very few accidents and the ones that did occur were cars that went off the road with no injuries.

“It was a relatively quiet night,” said Wren.

Some people did lose heat overnight and were directed to their local police station because warming centers opened into some communities had closed. There were no reports of power outages.

Wren said snow accumulation varied throughout Rockland from three and three quarter inches to six inches and the temperatures ranged from just five degrees to a high of nine. 

Day said his visit to the highway department will not be out of the ordinary in his administration. He has already gone to other departments and said the best way to be a leader is to see first hand what is going on. 

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