More on Snow

Fire hydrants, more towing, bus stops . . . only one post, so skip it if you’re tired of snow.

FIRE HYDRANTS
City wants you to clear 3 feet of snow around your fire hydrant. That’s 6 x 6 x 4 feet of snow in many places, or more. Where do you put 144 cubic feet of snow?

For Fire Safety, Clear Ice and Snow from Hydrants

Madison— The City of Madison Fire Department and the Madison Water Utility are asking residents and businesses to help in clearing the snow and ice from around fire hydrants adjacent to their property. It’s important to have a minimum of three feet around the hydrant to give the fire department room to work and to get quick access in case of a fire. If a hydrant is lost or buried in snow, firefighters can lose valuable time trying to locate it when they first arrive at a fire.

The City has more than 8,000 hydrants. A map of hydrant locations is at this link: http://www.cityofmadison.com/engineering/documents/CityOfMadison_FireHydrants.pdf. Fire Department public information officer Lori Wirth says, “Digging out the hydrant is not only the neighborly think to do, but it is crucial in an emergency for the firefighters to be able to quickly hook up their hoses. And it might save your own house.” Neighborhood associations may also want to consider adopting the area fire hydrants to shovel them out.

The Water Utility also asks that if residents see a damaged hydrant or water flowing down the street, they should call the utility’s emergency dispatcher at 266-4661 to report the problem so that repairs can be made.

TOWING
More cars towed if you don’t move, so the streets department can clear the snow under and around them, who are the lucky folks this time? They should be making enough money off this to be able to clear the bus stops, you’d think. There should be a nomination process for which streets are chosen.

Towing Set To Help Street Widening Efforts

The City of Madison will be conducting snow removal and street widening operations all week. To assist in the street widening efforts the following streets have been posted and vehicles parked illegally will be towed.
West Side Streets
Wednesday 2/9/2011
Chandler St. from S. Mills St. to S. Park St.
N. Charter from Regent St. to W. Dayton
Bowen Ct. from S. Mills St. to S. Randall St.
Fahrenbrook Ct. from S. Park St. to N. Mills St.
College Ct. from S. Park St. to N. Mills St.

Thursday 2/10/2011
Spring St. from N. Mills St. to S. Park St.
N. Brooks St. from Regent St. to Spring St.
S. Charter St. from Regent St. to Milton St.
S. Charter St. from St. James St. to Vilas Ave.

East Side Streets
Wednesday 2/9/2011
Jean St (odd side)
300 Blk N Ingersoll St (even side)
Cantwell Ct

Thursday 2/10/2011
E Gorham St – N Few St to N Blair St

Additional streets will be scheduled for towing during the rest of the week. The additional streets will be announced as soon as they are selected.

BUS STOPS
I’m curious how the bus stop plowing went. I sounded like nothing changed and they were lowest priority. I know there was a lot of snow, but I’m wondering if people saw improvements after the council discussion about it.