Saint John — The Port City’s councillors have been swamped with negative feedback over the mayor’s new winter management plan and Coun. Gerry Lowe is proposing his own plan: plowing the streets based on lottery.
Street names will be thrown into a “digital hat” and picked randomly. If the name is picked, the street will be plowed; if not, residents will be held responsible for shovelling it themselves. “We just don’t have the resources to deal with all of this snow,” Coun. Lowe told The Manatee. “We can no longer plow every street. It’s either snow or potholes.”
Saint John has experienced record snowfalls this winter, which many across the northeast are calling “Snowmageddon 2015.” The councillor said all residents in his ward were angry with the mayor’s proposal. “They want at least a chance to get plowed out. They need to get groceries and beer. Some of them go to Sea Dog games, you know.”
City Manager Pat Woods said a new computer program will need to be written to conduct these lotteries. “Every car registered to a street counts as a vote. If your street has 300 cars, you get 300 chances to have your street plowed. If your street has only one car registered to it, then your chances of being plowed out will be slim.”
Amy-Sue Sinclair of Peters Street was visibly upset when we asked citizens their opinions and concerns. “Every car on Peters Street is stolen and belongs to some other street,” she cried. “We’ll never get plowed!” King Street bookstore owner Ezekiel Peabody expressed a similar concern. “Nobody lives on King or Union streets. Who is going to shovel them?”
Coun. Lowe said a scheme to make shovellers responsible has not yet been worked out, but he hinted at “new property and rental taxes for all the slackers.” It’s a better plan than Councillor McAlary’s. She wants to install plows on all taxis, the crazy old bat.”
i have a home in Saint John where my wife and daughter and 3 grandchildren live unfortunately I’m now working in Alberta to make a living as I couldn’t get a decent job in Saint john.I’m amazed that the city always put the brunt of the problem on someone else their solution is to fine of order the people to basically fix the troubles themselves.Well here’s a solution from a simple working stiff that might work,and believe you me I hate paying any more taxes than anyone BUT after looking at the problem and realizing that this is probably a one lifetime event maybe the father fathers should institute a ONE time payment for every home and business in the range of $300 – $500 to pay for this awful snow problem and hopefully that would be enough to pay for the extra cost of the SNOW PROBLEM.
$300 this year for plowing, $100 for potholes, $1,500 to treat all of us diabetics, $2,000 for defense. As the years pass with our huge debt loads, something will have to give. At what point will we have to pick and choose which services to keep and which to let go?
Money and jobs are major problems in New Brunswick. We need much more discussion. We need solutions. Thank you for reaching home. Say hello to my nephew Matt if you see him. He rides in fire trucks out there somewhere.
I disagree with the one time payment idea. They should plow the streets of important Saint John residents first (like me) and scale it down to people last on the list like the ones on EI, welfare and single mothers. Frankly, I’m too busy being important for any crackpot lottery or doing the unthinkable, shovelling myself.
This didn’t work so well for Councillor Fullerton in a recent storm. The problem with your idea is that poorer streets lie between you and the plow depot, and those streets would need to be plowed first. We all know if you give something away to one underprivileged person, every underprivileged person would also want one. Remember 1917!
Seriously Saint John. Seriously.