Snow disrespect

Dear Editor,

I would like to be given the opportunity to address the recent grouse to my public expression of concern.

To those of you that find it necessary to revert to a middle-school level of disagreement and name calling, please sit back, grab a cup of coffee, and remember to put on your glasses, as I most certainly do not want you to misconstrue what I have to say.

I am confident that you unquestionably understand that occasionally a book has more to offer than the title that is pressed onto its cover.

In no way did I attempt to disregard, nor did I question the amount of work that was being done by our cities "workers," nor did I in any way belittle the amount of work they did in response to our previous storm. I never once muttered a word about my street not being cleared, or rather "... scraped clean to the dry surface ..."

And, when it comes to logistics, how logical can it be considered to allow several inches of accumulation to build up on streets that are considered to be "Emergency Routes," which I might add Mr. Trail, were the streets that I had in fact dispatched my concern toward, and more appropriately the response to the clearing of such.

Additionally, it is the beauty of freedom, Mr. Trail, that allows me the privilege of choosing whether or not to attend a City Council meeting and, if you would allow me to add, it's representative democracy that allows me to select "public officials" to represent me at such meetings.

I can certainly relate to the task of being assigned 12-15 hour days, and including the level of exhaustion that is accompanied with such. To the men and women that had to endure these hours, THANK YOU, for your hard work and dedication to the City of McCook. You displayed an extraordinary drive and determination to accomplish a considerable task.

That being said, please allow me to explain what my letter of opinion obviously came short of accomplishing for some ...

When snow is allowed to sit unattended for several hours on a road or roads that are journeyed frequently, there tends to be what could have been a preventable layer of ice that forms.

This layer of ice can then tend to become, what most of us know to be, a hazardous condition not only for our citizens, but "emergency vehicles" that might be responding to situations that, are most commonly referred to as "life threatening" (you know, those situations in which seconds decide life or death).

To make matters more severe, these types of situations virtually always accompany these types of storms.

Furthermore, and please correct me if I am wrong, in stating; if you add up the main streets of McCook (those considered emergency and or snow routes), you will find the total will fall well short of the previously suggested 100 miles of streets in McCook..

The intended concern in my article was simply this; had the snow been cleared a little sooner (Saturday night, during accumulation, and shortly thereafter), the conditions would have been improved at least ten-fold.

The day that a citizen's concerns and opinions are verbally scrutinized in a manner that can be considered offensive and tasteless by those that are elected by the same is a sad day indeed.

Again, I sincerely apologize to those employees that may have been offended as a result of the misconception afforded by way of the public rebuttals (and name calling) of some of our leaders, both past and present.

Craig A. Carner

McCook