Politics & Government

Questions Raised About Snow Removal In Islip

Nolan defends effort but GOP town council members unsuccessfully call for resignation of DPW commissioner.

More than a week after a late December blizzard dumped upwards of two-feet of snow across Islip, two town council members have called for the resignation of the Department of Public Works Commissioner who was out of town during the storm and was unable to travel back to Long Island.

During the town council's annual reorganization meeting Tuesday at Town Hall, councilwoman Trish Bergin Weichbrodt put forth a resolution that, if approved, would have called for the resignation of Richard Baker from his current post as DPW commissioner. The motion failed 3-2. While Bergin Weichbrodt and her fellow Republican Councilman Steve Flotteron voted in favor of the resolution, the board's three Democrats — Supervisor Phil Nolan and councilmen John Edwards and Gene Parrington — voted no.

Nolan called the resolution requesting Baker's resignation a "partisan cheap shot" and said his vote against it should be viewed as a "vote of confidence" for the DPW commissioner.

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At issue for Bergin Weichbrodt is the fact that Baker was out of town during the recent blizzard as he visited his daughter in Virginia. She feels Baker should have returned home early once weather forecasts began calling for heavy snow in the region. In addition, Bergin Weichbrodt claims that she attempted to call Baker several times during the storm, but those calls were not returned until a few days later.

She pointed to a vacation policy in the department of public works that states that all vacation requests scheduled between December 15 and March 15 will be approved on a tentative basis and are subject to weather conditions. "Commissioner Baker had not led by example and had not followed his own policy," Bergin Weichbrodt said.

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While Baker was not available for comment, Nolan confirmed to Patch that Baker was out of town, but that he did make an effort to return to Islip. Baker was unable drive back because of the storm that was impacting the east coast, Nolan said.

"He was monitoring the weather and the track of the storm," the town supervisor said of Baker. "He attempted to drive home and got about 90 miles north and ended up getting caught in the storm. Once the track of the storm was determined, he was simply unable to beat the storm home."

Despite being out of town, Nolan said Baker was continually in contact with the town supervisor as well as members of the public works department. "I was on the phone with him three to five times a day," Nolan added.

Also at issue was the town's response to the snow and its efforts to clear the streets. Nolan gave the town high marks for its effort, but Bergin Weichbrodt said residents from several hamlets including Holbrook, Islip and East Islip complained about the town's response time to the storm. The councilwoman had a petition with about 70 signatures of residents she said were unhappy with the town's snow removal efforts.

In addition, Sayville Patch received a handful of e-mails complaining about the lack of snow removal in some parts of the hamlet. However, those residents declined to be interviewed on the record about the issues they said their neighborhoods were having with snow removal.

But Nolan was pleased with the town's response in the face of a strong winter storm.

"This was a blizzard and was a very difficult storm," he said. "We used our resources in an extremely effective manner and our people did a heck of a job. When we did get complaints into our Emergency Management Office, we responded as quickly as we could."


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