Tell The Township Which Roads Need To Be Cleaned Up

Residents dealing with side streets that still have debris on them from the have a new way to alert the to their neighborhoods. Bill Laforet has added a section to his campaign website where residents can update the township on which roads need to be cleaned up.

“I think this is something that can help us be more efficient,” Laforet said of the online update center. Residents can visit the site to report the condition of roads near them. Then, locations that still have a lot of debris from the storm built up on them are added to a map that plots roadways the DPW needs to clean up, Laforet said.

Over the weekend, the map grew to over 50 roadways in the township that are still affected. Visitors to the site can also see the comments made by residents in the area. For example, there are “[s]everal large branches on Ackerman Drive, including several [blocking] the Bus Stop on Ackerman and Hopper,” and “Macintosh, Shuart and Doremus [Roads] are very hard to navigate through with the amount of trees that are down plus now the piles of leaves. [It’s] very dangerous at night,” according to the resident comments on the site.

Laforet, who said he is taking a tour of the clean-up starting Monday morning by visiting every DPW crew, said the township will use the map to help pinpoint the areas in town that need the most and soonest attention.

The mayor-elect said he wants to “use technology as a way to attack this problem,” which he views as a “crisis. It is hard work for the DPW crews, so I am hoping this will reenergize and refocus all of their efforts.”