State should take a Rockford lesson

December 19th, 2008 at 08:36am Linda Grist Cunningham

Don’t blame the Rockford snow plow crews when you hit Second Street (Rt. 251) this morning. That’s the state dudes and they aren’t getting the job done well. They told our reporter around 8 a.m., that they were doing their best and blamed the fast and furious snow for the challenges.

OK, but that means I have to believe it’s snowing more over state roads than over city ones. I drove downtown to the News Tower about 7 a.m., from my house near Rock Valley College on the far east side of the city. That meant mostly city streets, a couple of patches of county (decent; not as good as the city) and then that Spring Creek cloverleaf at the Rock River and south onto the state’s Second Street.

What a mess with at least one car off in the drifts. One lane in each direction appeared to have been plowed once. The rest was deeply drifted over and getting considerably rutted as traffic increased. I swung off at Y Boulevard; it and Madison along the railroad tracks were in better shape that Second Street.

I accept that in the rural county areas keeping the roads clear can be a challenge because of the wind, but smack in the middle of the city? Nah, the state guys just weren’t prepared.

Kudos to the Rockford crews. Once again, you’re making it easy for me to get to work.

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