Monday, February 11, 2013

AND WHILE I'VE REVIVED THE BLOG FOR A LITTLE BIT...

...I have a WTF Award to give out!

It's amazing how when you're driving through the city of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, after a snowstorm, you can ALWAYS tell where the city limits are because Pawtucket has the worst snow removal system in the state of Rhode Island (Central Falls comes a close second.  Drove through it yesterday.)

Yesterday, I went to my church in West Warwick, Rhode Island, to play the 9:00 and 11:15 Masses, and once again this morning for a funeral Mass.  While there is not much difference between the population density on the busier streets of West Warwick (namely Providence Street, which is RI state Route 33) and the Broadway neighborhood in Pawtucket (Broadway is part of US Route 1, which runs from Madawaska, ME at the Canadian Border to Key West, FL).  Yet the streets I trekked in West Warwick are perfectly clear and unflooded (as was New London Avenue and Pontiac Avenue, both in Cranston).  Broadway in Pawtucket, along with other main roads in the area - Cottage Street and Central Avenue - was filled with frozen snow chunks from half-assed plowing, snow banks that went halfway out into the road (namely where you enter Broadway from the exit ramp from Interstate 95), and deep puddles.  Our minivan dang near bottomed out several times trekking the streets of Pawtucket.

And if that isn't enough, Pawtucket Avenue in Pawtucket (also part of US Route 1) was also full of chunks and layers.  But once you cross into Providence (where it is now North Main Street, also part of US-1), the road is perfectly clear.  Providence, a city whose population is more than double that of Pawtucket, had better roads this afternoon than Pawtucket did.  My wife, who was with me to witness this, has a nasty disk bulge in her back, and believe me, she was feeling every bump.

Granted we had about 25 inches of snow this weekend, but it's a shame when you can find the city limits just by the condition of its roads.  You know you're in better-kept roads when you leave Pawtucket to cross into Providence, East Providence or Lincoln, RI, or Attleboro or Seekonk, MA.

So, I hereby give the February 2013 WTF Award to the city of Pawtucket for, once again, poor planning and poor plowing.  They even fail in snow removal when there are only two inches on the ground, let alone two feet, while other cities and towns seem to get it!

WTF!

Peace,
BMP

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