Politics & Government

Orangetown Highway Department Continues Clean-Up

As of 10 a.m. Monday, there were still 15 roads in Orangetown at least closed due to downed wires and trees from Saturday's storm. Many traffic signals in town are still out. The leaf pick-up scheduled to begin today has been postponed.

Approximately 111 streets in Orangetown were impacted by fallen trees or tree branches due to Saturday's snow storm.

The Orangetown Highway Department worked until 4 a.m. Sunday, then went back out most of the day to clear the roads.

The roads that remain closed are waiting on Orange & Rockland to clear downed or damaged wires.

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"Basically, we worked until about 5 p.m. yesterday and cleared everything that we could that was blocking roads not involved with wires," said Orangetown Highway Superintendent Jim Dean. "Most of the roads are ready. The ones still blocked, there are wires hanging or wires down. We can't touch anything like that until it is cleared by O&R."

The following roads in Orangetown are at least partially closed:

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Blauvelt

  • Ashwood Drive
  • Convent Road

Orangeburg

  • Lester Drive
  • Edgwood Drive
  • Dutch Hill Road (broken pole by Tappan Zee High School)

Tappan

  • Conklin Avenue
  • Lexington Avenue
  • Western Highway

Pearl River

  • Blauvelt Road (between Sickletown Road and McKinley Street)
  • Linden Lane
  • Maple Shade
  • Hansen Avenue
  • John Street
  • Old Middletown Road

Dean said that residents should be careful driving because there are still many traffic signals out in town.

"We have been working with the police department," Dean said. "The police were out at a lot of critical ones this morning. We are putting temporary stop signs up where the signals are out. People should be extra cautious."

Dean said that much of the cleanup effort has shifted to sidewalks while going back to streets that are blocked once O&R gives them the go-ahead. He said they will be doing a brush pick up within the next day or two and are asking residents to put brush near the street, but not on it.

The leaf pick-up that was scheduled to begin Monday has been postponed at least two weeks. In fact, half of the highway department's vehicles were already prepared for the leaf pick-up and had to be converted back Friday in preparation for the storm. Dean said the trucks have been designed to change quickly over the last 10 years. What would have taken approximately two hours now takes 20 minutes.

"It certainly will not be before the 14th of November," Dean said. "We can't pick up leaves mixed with brush. We have to pray there is no more snow or we could be seeing leaves well into 2012.

"We had to convert half of our equipment. We usually worry about this late November and early December, not October. We started setting up the equipment (for snow) Friday. We designed the trucks for the last 10 years to switch over quickly."


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