The 13 inches of snow we received over the past week and the extreme cold that followed has been a trying experience for everyone.
Even though it may not always have been apparent, the Central Park Master Association's snow removal contractor has been doing his best to keep the Central Park ring roads and entrances as clear as possible as we recover from this "snow emergency".
During the storm, the roadways were plowed three times and then salted. However, the extreme cold that followed rendered the salt applications ineffective and the salted snow formed an ice pack that was welded to the frozen pavement. The occasional sunshine during the daytime would warm the ice pack and turn the top layer into slush, which he would then plow away, only to reveal another layer of ice pack that would need to be salted and plowed away once it turned into slush. After repeated cycles of salting and plowing, as of Friday afternoon January 10th he was finally able to get down to bare pavement in most stretches of the roadway.
As bad as the weather was, the Central Park snow contractor also had to contend with many cars that were parked in the streets in violation of Shelby Township's declared "snow emergency". Also, he reports that many, many residents were observed blowing and pushing the snow from their driveways out into the street, which is illegal in the State of Michigan. The additional snow is a safety hazard for motorists and an added burden to our contractor.
Keeping our streets open is a top priority for the health and safety of all our residents. Emergency vehicles and school buses must be able to safely navigate our streets.
Please do your part to help our community recover as quickly as possible from severe weather conditions. Please put the snow from your driveway onto the lawn areas on either side of the driveways and during a declared "snow emergency", please park your vehicles in your driveway and/or garage.
Please note that the Central Park parking regulations (listed here) give the Central Park Master Association the authority to have any vehicles
towed away at the owner's expense if they are left parked on North,
South, East and West Central Park during a declared "snow emergency".
