I have been spending a good amount of time today chatting with people on UTH For Members Only, (which is the REAL Undergroundtownhall), about the fall I took in the street yesterday afternoon, resulting in my son having to bring me to the emergency room.

Now I did run a few of the comments regarding snow plowing, (or lack of it) in Cheshire, especially during the last storm which took place Christmas Eve day. It’s weird but it almost seems like Mother Nature had it in for us this Holiday season.

The people who have access to UTH For Members Only are people I trust. This is a way for many people, especially in Cheshire, to openly chat (they have to give their names), without fear of retaliation by certain people in control in plain English.

I know many of you were very upset when I told you on UTH FMO that I had received a call from the CPD regarding this fall.

Some of you said I should have hung up and that they had a nerve calling. You can take it anyway you want but I am trying to establish a working relationship with this Police Department so I will take the call as concern and nothing else.  BUT, I didn’t appreciate hearing those “beeps” that you hear whenever you correspond by telephone with the Police.

You see, the Police are trained that there is always some ulterior motive to everything, and it usually isn’t good. However, that is how I was trained when I was a reporter to deal with the police: the same way they are trained to deal with the public. So, I am always a little skeptical and apprehensive when I interact with them. My guard is always up, because frankly, I always wonder what they are up to. I am sure, in fact I know it works both ways, but so be it.

I did take a liking to some of the cops at the CPD. I think we are getting somewhere, in that they don’t panic when they hear me or read my blog and I speak my mind. I think it is a lot easier and hopefully we are learning from each other.

I was brought up from a small child to hate authority, especially the police. That will always be with me, until the day I die. I had a cousin that was a member of the Weathermen. My family was VERY liberal and radical.

But, I have had and still do have friendly relationships with several police officers I grew up with in Bridgeport, but there is a line with that also.

In fact, when I researching my ancestry, I found out that my great-great grandfather was a member of the Carabinieri in Italy. These people are akin to the State Police in the Country. So you see, I did have a relative that was a cop. My husband is also like a cop in a way. He is a Revenue Examiner for the Ct Dept of Labor. He enforces the Employer Tax. He has people arrested, he investigates, he testifies in court. He just doesn’t give out traffic tickets, wear a uniform or carry a gun.

Now to get back to the incident, for the rest of my readers on “above” Undergroundtownhall: I had no sooner posted that “as of 3 p.m. my road had not been plowed” on New Years Eve day, that I went upstairs from working all day in my office in the basement, to see my son pulling in the driveway in his car. He came into the house and said that our street was the only street he noticed that had not been plowed in Cheshire. (He had just driven from Hamden).

Around 11 a.m., I did see a snowplow go up the adjacent street that I am off of.  And for a second I wondered if my street had been plowed because it seems over the past three or four years, our street is being missed. This does not happen all the time, but it has happened quite frequently in the past.

Well, I looked out the window but I couldn’t tell if the street had been plowed or not. It didn’t look like it and I was busy, so I did not give it much thought.

My youngest son wanted to go out around 1 p.m and I told him I could not do it because nothing had been plowed.

I could remember when I first moved to this area 24 years ago, our street would be plowed several times during a storm. Over the past few years, we were lucky to see the plow once and it had nothing to do with the economic situation. It was just plain sloppiness in my opinion.

My street runs from a main thoroughfare to another heavily traveled street. My street is not really a side street. It used to be a dead-end and it seemed the plow never missed us then.

Approximately 15 years ago, maybe a little longer, my street was developed and it was put connected to that major throoughfare. It was no longer a dead end.

Then a ‘side street’ was put in off of my street that loops around and connects to the other major street in my development.  So it is like a half circle.

What started happening is the plow would come down the newer part of my street and TURN onto that side road, loop around and continue up the other main road, thus resulting in my part of the street which only contains seven houses, being IGNORED and NOT PLOWED.

When my son tried to pull into our driveway this past Wednesday afternoon, even with four wheel drive,  one of the tires sunk down into several inches of rutted ice crusted snow and became stuck. I went out to see what was going on when I tripped over an ice rut and fell backwards hitting my head on the hard snowpack and landing on my back.

Now I know what some of you are thinking:” oh she probably had sneakers on”

WRONG!! I don’t wear sneakers I never did, I hate them, they are ugly. I had my snow boots on that have rubber points on them. These shoes are made to be worn on snow and ice and I still fell.

But what made matters worse was when my son started to drive me to the local ER, and I saw that the second I passed out of my section of my street everything else had been PLOWED almost down to the pavement–I BLEW A GASKET!!!

Again our little strip was not plowed. !  I did not take my cell phone and my son left his at his apartment, so when I got to the local hospital, I borrowed one of the nurses and called the CPD and politely asked if they could plow Lancaster Way. I said I had fallen and hit my head and I was suing!!!

P.S. Its funny,  I NEVER gave my name when I called the CPD so I WONDER how they knew it was ME!!

I mean think about it. What is the problem here? How can you operate a plow, start plowing a street and then TURN AWAY FROM IT to plow a side street, knowing that part of the street you turned away from WAS NOT GOING TO BE PLOWED?? The driver had to see that part of my street was not plowed? I could see it when I left my house. I could clearly see the “line” of where the plow turned. I took a photo of it.  I could also see where the unplowed part of my street ended and the plowed part begins.

What is this called? NEGLIGENCE. Failure to excercise due care.  It is one thing, even though this isn’t right either, to not plow a street at all, but it is something else entirely to plow HALF OF A STREET and then turn off of it!!

Don’t these plow drivers have a route?? How can you get away with plowing half of a street?

Well to end the story, I managed to get in and out of the hospital fairly quickly.

THAT IS ALL I WILL SAY. When I got home, the phone rang and Lt. Deegan of the CPD was on the other end of the line asking me if I was OK. I was really taken aback by that call. But then I told him what I stated above. I told him the problem seems to be that the plow drivers turn onto the side street before finishing the rest of my street.

He told me he contacted Mr. Cunningham, whom I assume is in charge of the road plowing. I thought it was Mr. Michaelangelo, but I guess I was wrong.

My daughter later told me that the plow finally came by around 4:30 p.m. and kept driving up and down the street.  Believe me, I haven’t seen my street this clean in years!! Too bad this is what it took.

Street plowing is TOP PRIORITY in every city and town. Snowplowing is essential to public safety. It ranks right up at there with police and fire and homeland security. If the roads are impassible you can’t get anywhere now can you?

When I called to have my street plowed, the dispatcher asked if I needed an ambulance. I would have loved to have seen the ambulance get up that street-NOT!!

I have a suggestion: the CPD should take those two four wheel drive gas guzzlers and drive up and down EVERY STREET and radio in the ones that have not been plowed!! Never mind sitting around waiting for a person to drive 35 in a 25 or spend time pacing someone to see if they will “go over the speed limit” or to see if they are drunk.

CLEARING PASSABLE ROADS ARE MORE IMPORTANT!! GET IT CHESHIRE TOWN GOVERNMENT!!

To end: I did see the Register story about Rite-Aid relocating to that UGLY plaza across from St. Bridgets Church on Maple Avenue..

This could be a double-edged sword. But at least the town will be ridding itself of that eyesore that was once a part of Cheshire’s history and was left to decay. In fact, you can see how that plaza USED TO LOOK if you visit the Dunkin Donuts in Everybody’s Plaza. It was really nice–too bad.

I hope I can get to take a photo of that plaza before it is demolished.

Rite Aid has been experiencing some profit downturn, but according to their website, they are bouncing back. Whatever.

I am disappointed with Rite Aid going into that Maple Avenue location because I was getting ready to put  in an application to P & Z to open my VIP (Very Intimate Pleasures) shop at that location, since my original plan of opening the VIP shop at the Lifestyle Center may be SERIOUSLY DELAYED.

And as you all know, TIME IS MONEY!!

In the meantime, click here for the 411 on Rite-Aid