Residents say snow still blocks side roads

Yonkers residents of the hilly neighborhood near Central Avenue say they are fed up with snow-covered streets. The latest snowfall was Thursday, but road crews have not yet cleared the area. Locals

News 12 Staff

Mar 8, 2015, 3:43 AM

Updated 3,509 days ago

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Yonkers residents of the hilly neighborhood near Central Avenue say they are fed up with snow-covered streets.
The latest snowfall was Thursday, but road crews have not yet cleared the area.
Locals also say large snow banks have piled up and limited access to side streets and blocked driveways.
The problem was exacerbated when plows cleared only the major intersections, dumping piles of snow in front of side streets and driveways, according to resident Al Seamon.
City officials say they were low on salt, which is the reason a lot of the roads remain obstructed. News 12 learned that yesterday the city requested and received an emergency supply of 650,000 tons of salt from the state.
Department of Public Works Commissioner Thomas Meier says that the city never ran out of salt completely, but supplies were extremely low, and the company contracted to deliver more could not keep up with demand. Officials had denied that information when asked previously by News 12.
Meier says crews are on the job, and says last night's 6-degree low is partly responsible for the lack of progress. The colder it is, the less of an effect salt has on icy roads, he says.
The streets have been salted, Meier says, and Saturday's warmer weather should help melt the ice.
As far as the snow banks are concerned, the commissioner says the city cannot dump snow anywhere in the area because of environmental concerns, and if it could, the equipment to do so would be too expensive, to the tune of $5 million.