After recent ice storm, New Paltz leaders recognized that there was a shortage of salt and sand

The recent ice storm has all but melted away, but local New Paltz leaders recognized that there was a shortage of salt and sand in the community as residents tried to control the dangerous conditions that resulted on roads and sidewalks. Trustee William Wheeler Murray announced at the February 9 meeting that Town residents who bring their own buckets would be allowed to get salt and sand at the Town Highway Department facilities on Clearwater Road. As the ice has since largely melted, it’s not clear if that benefit remains available, but sturdy plastic buckets are often available for sale at the reuse center just up the road.

As always, icy conditions are compounded by state and municipal employees plowing what’s on most of the road onto that thin ribbon of street reserved for pedestrians — the sidewalk — which due to tradition alone is the one part of the “complete street” that must be cleared by property owners, who must remove whatever fell upon the sidewalk as well as the material that was placed there by government employees. The result is that sidewalks are cleared to an inconsistent quality, particularly at property lines, meaning that pedestrians should exercise caution while moving about.