To the Editor:
Five days following last Wednesday’s snowfall, little has been done by the Edgartown Highway Department to make sidewalks passable, aside from a few chosen places. Most of the Main Street walkways, as well as many sections of the bike paths, were cleared, but large stretches of often used walkways were never touched, while some lightly traveled streets had enough sand and salt dumped on them to cover the next two storms to come. Anyone needing or choosing to walk into and around town was forced to step out onto the roadways, including onto some busy streets.
Following two good thaw days, sidewalks along Pease’s Point Way, Cooke Street, Clevelandtown Road, most in-town streets, and frequently traversed Church Street walkways leading to the bus station remained nonetheless an icy mess untouched by the sidewalk plow equipment the town owns for just this. Even sidewalks immediately adjacent to the Edgartown School weren’t cleared, making it ill-advised for any kids who normally walk to school to do so. Since this kind of halfway response to a routine snowfall makes for days of inconvenience and sets up an unsafe situation for pedestrians, kids and elders alike, this normally heads-up town needs to put considerably more effort into making walkways usable again next time it snows.
Geoff Allan
Edgartown
