IS IT TIME FOR AN AMBER ALERT?

MISSING- CITY OF HARTFORD PLOW TRUCKS, ANYONE SEEING THEM PLEASE CALL THE MAYOR'S OFFICE SO THEY CAN BE DEPLOYED TO HARTFORD'S STREETS.

I don't want to sound like whining because I can look out my window and see we had a historic snowstorm. I can also look out my window and see that no City of Hartford plow truck has passed in over 24 hours. The few trucks I have seen while I am out have been driving with their plow blades up in the air.

Now I understand that the city is divided into specific plow routes, but even as those trucks go to their route, in this case those blades should be on the pavement pushing every flake of snow they can.

This is not just an inconvenience now, it is a public safety emergency when firefighters and EMT's are carrying people blocks in a stokes basket to the closest street that has been plowed. I am getting calls from across the City from residents telling me that their streets haven't even had one pass from a plow yet.

Yesterday, a woman on South Marshall Street a woman went into labor. I happened to be in the neighborhood and heard the EMT's radio that they couldn't get to her because the street wasn't plowed. Everything was in place at the right time and I saw a large bucket loader coming down Farmington Avenue. I got out and stopped the loader and asked the operator if he would do me a favor.

I explained the situation and asked if he could make a pass down South Marshall Street to open it up for the ambulance. He quickly agreed and opened up the street and the Ambulance was on it's way to deliver a baby.

Sadly, the only plow truck doing anything was operated by two Hartford Police Officer's, Officer's Cavanna and Stackewitz, driving a City plow truck assisting stuck motorists and police cars.Maybe if I at least saw a DPW truck moving about I would feel better, but I don't see any.

Hartford always settles for less than stellar plowing operations. This storm is historic, but then again so is Hartford's response, it is what we have come to expect from the DPW, there is no excuse for it.