Authors:
While walking my dog this morning, I saw a brand new Chevrolet Colorado pickup. In the midst of wishing I could afford one, I noticed the City of Fort Collins emblem on the door. Oh well, these people work to keep the city clean and functioning. They were leaving notes telling people to clean their sidewalks.
On my way back from class, I thought I would stop by and see when my street was going to get plowed, since there are three inches of packed snow on it. She informed me Fort Collins does nothing to clean the side streets, just mainly the "arterial" streets – College Ave., Loomis and Mulberry etc.
I then asked her why we we're required to clean the sidewalks if no one is going to plow our streets. The answer she gave me was that it's a "slippage hazard" if the sidewalks aren't cleaned. Ha! I wonder what would happen if a 4,000-pound car careened into the sidewalk, plowing over a child that goes to the elementary school by where I live, or if a child walked out into the street in front of an oncoming vehicle?
As I stood by their brand new vehicle, watching one person sit in the heated cab while the other wrote the next warning, I wondered, "Couldn't one person do both jobs?" She went on to tell me how all this snow will be melted by tomorrow. As I write this, it is 17 degrees outside.
I am an engineer, although I doubt you need to be one to know this isn't going to work out. I told her that last year my only mode of transportation was a motorcycle, and there was packed snow on the streets from the first snow until weeks after the last.
She told me they would plow the streets if they were impassible. To which I wonder, impassible to what? Her 4×4 Chevy or my girlfriend's Saturn?
I hope this will alert more people to call the city. Tell them it is important to clean the streets. Tell them we pay for these services and we expect them to be done.
If not, the city might have to start buying the new Dodge Mega-Cab to hold all of the people needed to write the sidewalk notices.
Shane Brisendine
Junior
mechanical engineering major
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