Residents from throughout the Town of Hempstead have been issuing complaints about the town's snow removal since approximately a foot of snow was dumped on Nassau County on Saturday, Dec. 30. At the first board meeting of the year, town residents lashed out at Supervisor Richard Guardino and councilmembers as they discussed approving funding to hire a consultant to help deal with the plowing problems that were experienced with this last storm.

The resolution to hire Levittown resident Frank Scarangella as a consultant to the Town of Hempstead's Highways Department was one of three severed by Councilwoman Dorothy Goosby, the lone Democrat left on the board. When Guardino asked if anyone wanted to address that issue, Darren Connor, a Roosevelt resident questioned what this consultant was being hired to do. Guardino explained that in light of the recent problems with snow removal the Town of Hempstead faced in the recent snowstorm, he wanted to hire Scarangella, a former deputy highway commissioner to review town's entire snow removal operation "from top to bottom." He noted that the town was unhappy with the highway department's performance last week.

Connor, like several other angry residents, commented on the disorganization which resulted in many town roads not being plowed until days after the snowstorm. Other residents told stories about seeing snowplows come down the unplowed streets with their plows up. In the past couple of weeks other similar stories have been told, such as snow plows not plowing and then dumping a big pile of sand in the middle of the road so residents have to drive over not only snow but piles of sand. Several residents have complained about the snowplow operators, when they do plow, pushing the snow directly onto an area that a resident just shoveled and then laughing at the resident.

Dorothy Claus, a Uniondale resident questioned why the town should hire Scarangella, who "should have left that department operational when he left." A West Hempstead resident who lives down the street from a firehouse expressed her anger that the street was not cleared so that the fire trucks could get out safely.

As more and more stories came out about the snowplows not clearing the snow, the question of whether this was a job action by union members was raised. Bill Flannigan, the president of the CSEA used the board meeting as an opportunity to deny these allegations. "There was no type of job action by town employees," said Flannigan. He said that he would not just sit there and listen to residents complaining when his workforce was out there doing their jobs. According to Flannigan the problem is that the highway department is "understaffed and undertrained." He also added his belief that residents have made the situation worse by shoveling or blowing the snow back into the streets after the plows have come through. He went on to say that he felt that hiring a consultant to work with the highway department was a good idea.

When the hiring of Scarangella came up to be voted upon, the supervisor and five Republican councilmembers approved the hiring while Goosby voted against it.

Following the board's approval, the Town of Hempstead Democratic Committee sent out a press release criticizing the decision to hire Scarangella, who is a Republican Committeeman, as a consultant, stating that, "A winter storm on Long Island becomes a political plum for Hempstead Republicans." In the release Town of Hempstead Democratic Committee Chairman Peter Ruffner states that the Democratic committee feels that the $15,000 that will be used as Scarangella's salary "would be better spent on equipment, additional personnel, and training than on another personal services contract for a Republican Committeeman." Ruffner adds, "I would think that Highway Department Commissioner Anthony Califano and his deputies, which have combined service with the town exceeding a half century of experience, would not need to hire a consultant, who retired from that same department, to teach them how to plow the town's streets and parking areas."

Town of Hempstead Councilman Gary Hudes, a Levittown resident, following the first town board meeting said, "I took office on Jan. 1 but due to the severity of the storm, I rode with a town plowing crew for more than five hours during this storm on Dec. 30 so that I could understand the job and its complexities." He further noted that he spent his first week in office driving through his district reporting streets to the highway department that had not been cleared to his expectations. Hudes admitted that the town did not perform well in the snow cleanup and said that he has been meeting with Guardino every day this week to discuss the matter.

"We have determined that the highway department needs to be completely examined from top to bottom in order to determine what changes and adjustments need to be made. Our snow removal performance must return to the type of snow removal service that the town is known for," Hudes stated. According to the councilman, hiring Scarangella to examine the highway department is the first step in this process. "When he was employed by the town a few years ago, Mr. Scarangella handled the 19 snowfalls and blizzard of 1996 quite well and has a wealth of experience. His expertise is a first step in examining the current methods and practices of the highway department."

Equipment, training, procedure, staffing, and plowing are among the areas which the town board and supervisor have directed Scarangella to look into, according to Hudes. He concluded, "I personally apologize for any inconvenience to the residents of the Town of Hempstead and do not want this to happen again."