God can take it away."
But why are schools cancelled if 20% of the students can't get there?
Move on with the other 80%, tell the 20% that you got a free day off, so you need to read XYZ chapter this Saturday at home to catch up.
I know we live in an LCD society, but it would be a good lesson to learn for the young'ins that the world carries on without you when you're sick, on vacation or not able to work. It's ok, you can catch up later, but we don't hold up the entire production for a minority of attendees.
with the giant county-wide school systems. I wish we could have different attendance zones. But with all the busing we do I don't think it would work.
It was '82, my first year living in Aurora, near Denver. An ND man named McNicholas was mayor of Denver. Christmas Eve came and so too a monumental blizzard. After 36 hours, snow depth was up to my waist, and I'm 6'4".
Linked article pretty well explains what happened. Streets were clogged for more than a week. Next election Mayor McNicholas was gone. They later even tore down the basketball/hockey arena named after him for a better one.
More photos at this link: https://www.denverpost.com/2016/05/26/blizzard-of-1982-in-colorado-on-christmas-photos/
God, I miss Colorado.
in the teeth of the storm, not knowing how bad the storm was. We were really happy to reach Denver. Then I got out of the car on top of a freeway overpass. No one was on the freeway we were driving on or the one below. Luckily, we got to within a quarter mile of my home. We had to go through a five-foot drift to get to the front door. Fun!
Turn knob on dash to 4WD. Go wherever you want.
I love driving on snow days. Nobody is on the roads. I even love driving in heavy snow. I once drove the stretch of 96 from Detroit to Grand Rapids during a blizzard - it was like Mad Max on ice. With fewer people trying to kill me. It was great.
I live in the burbs but our address is still technically within city limits and we got a couple hours of wintry rain followed by 5-6 inches of snow a few weeks ago. No salting or other pre-treatment was done (they claimed they couldn't because it started as rain and would've washed away). Afterwards, no plow showed up for 3-4 days, at which point the snow had been fully compacted into sheets of ice, rendering the efforts pointless. Schools were canceled for 3 straight days, cars who tried to get out in the first day or two afterwards were stuck/abandoned in random parts of the neighborhood.
Our HOA outlined a potential plan to hire a private snow removal service after everyone complained that the adjoining neighborhood to ours was promptly cleared (they use a service) but apparently we have some skinflints who scoff at the prospect of paying an extra $100 per year for the service. The city of KC's approach or capability is in very stark contrast to Minneapolis where I lived for 4 years - extremely well oiled machine there.
About the only difference from the South and Granger, IN is that they continue to cancel school in the south whereas they just leave side streets unplowed in the Granger but school is in session.
of ice if the roads aren't cleared.
I grew up in NY and also lived in Evanston IL and in NH for several years - the South is particularly bad at handling snow.
Some of it (maybe most) is related to not investing in the quantity of removal equipment because it doesn't snow as much here; but the fact that they never plow the side streets in my area (ever, in 15 years of living at my address) is frustrating to me.
My Camry does okay in snow, but my wife's Hyundai is useless in it.
It was like a carnival ride.
Driving on snow is way easier than driving on ice (ie possible vs. impossible). Temps Around me usually fluctuate between above/below freezing, so the snow will melt but when it freezes the melt turns to ice. Couple that with the costs of investing in ice trucks and plows for 1-2 annual snowfalls outweighing the benefits, and Mother Nature is effectively the snow removal plan, which takes some time.
Plus southerners are shitty drivers when it snows.
The plows would eventually get to our forgotten little street days after the storm. After a few years, my parents would call DPW and they'd often show up, apologize profusely and then clear everyone's driveway apron as well as the street.
I live in a semi-rural town at the end of a dead-end street and we are always plowed not just after the storm but even during it. Certainly different than places points southward in which I have lived.
I grew up in a semi-rural town in upstate NY (to be clear, I'm not talking White Plains, try ~1 hour north of Albany) and snow was cleared on my neighborhood street several times a day during a heavy storm. The only way school would be closed when a snow storm was happening is if several inches of snow an hour were falling while buses would be running. It was much more common to have ice cancel school, and even that was uncommon with as quickly as they salted the streets.
St. Joseph county has to be one of the most inept counties in the United States of America. I suppose Cook County, IL is more corrupt, but certainly not more inept. There are still huge piles of leaves on the streets in Granger and they will likely stay there until spring. Maybe it is still like that all over the county. I can usually count on a snow plow to arrive on my street about 2-3 days after a significant snowfall. It is not uncommon to have cars stuck on our street for multiple days. I don't know the exact % of taxes paid to the county by the people living within 1 square mile of my house...but I am willing to bet it is a significant portion. For that we basically get no county services. Granger should have incorporated long ago...but it is too late now.
Leaves fell late and snow came early. People threw a fit there leaves weren’t picked up. We have 5 leaf crews. Those trucks are also snow plows which means a change over in equipment every time it snows. It will take another month to get caught up on leaves here, and that is if it doesn’t snow.
Be patient.
Footnote: I don’t live it St Joseph County
But I get the challenge for whoever agrees to do the leaves pickup. What amuses me is that it's the same outrage every year despite the same thing happening every year. You'd think after a while the town would try to figure out a more appropriate solution and/or people would stop depending on something that has always been a problem every year (and that is regardless of trying to assign blame out to Mother Nature and/or public works).
Signed: Your superiors from Elkhart County.
Why people still count on leaf pickups happening and then are surprised and outraged when it doesn't is beyond me. It has happened every single year I have lived here.
Who knew there is winter weather in the area, often times which happens before or very shortly after all the leaves fall from trees!?!
The home of Detroit. I don't even think Chicago can match the level of corruption in Detroit over the past 40 years.