If Only Congress Could be Run by Local Government

Two days ago, I blogged about having to slog through over a foot of snow in front of a county owned building several blocks from my house.  The building is on a main thoroughfare through our area, and there is a heavily used bus stop in front of the building.

Last night, I emailed a Town official and the County Supervisor, very nicely (I am never nasty with a complaint letter or email), not knowing which County agency was responsible for this 800,000. square foot building (a victim of our September, 2011 floods).  The building had been owned by the Air Force at the time of our September, 2011 flood caused by Tropical Storm Lee.  Since, it had been taken over by our County.

I asked the officials if they could intervene and get the sidewalks cleared off.

In an area (upstate New York) that commonly gets 80 inches or more of snow in a year, this is not an idle concern.  In a bad winter, those uncleaned sidewalks could have been a hazard for months.

So, what happened?

At 10:03 AM today I received an email from Town official Tom Augostini (who kindly answered me despite the fact that I misspelled his last name - so sorry!) advising the name of the agency responsible - and giving me his cell phone number should the problem recur.

When I got home from work tonight there was a phone message from Rose Sotak, the Town of Union Supervisor - no need to call her back but she wanted me to know that my concerns were going to be addressed.

They certainly were.  The sidewalk had been plowed by the time I got home.

Don't you wish our Congress would be as responsive?

Guess who will definitely get my vote next time they are up for reelection?

 I want to give a shoutout to both of these officials.   Thank you!

Now, I hope, that when it snows again.....that will be the true test, won't it?  It is snowing now and we are supposed to get 3 to 5 inches.  Check back later this week!