GUILDERLAND — The town of Guilderland is being criticized by a local grassroots group for the way it handled its sidewalk cleanup following a late winter storm that dumped as much as 10 inches of heavy, wet snow on the area.

However, Guilderland’s supervisor says town workers did a heroic job, prioritizing emergency needs in the midst of a “unique storm.”

The Guilderland Coalition for Responsible Growth in an email sent to town board members around 2 p.m., on Sunday, March 5, wrote, “This is a formal notice to the town of Guilderland that a dangerous situation exists because of negligence in maintaining the sidewalks in the town.” 

The board was provided with photographs of unplowed sidewalks.

The snow began to fall on Friday night and continued into Saturday.

“As you are well aware, we have brought this to your attention on numerous occasions and it appears that this issue falls on deaf ears or the town just does not care enough about its residents to ensure their safety,” the email read. 

The email also said a senior citizen with a walker was spotted on the side of the road in front of the Serafini Apartments because the sidewalks along Western Avenue had yet to be plowed. “Unfortunately, because the traffic was moving so fast, we were unable to grab a photo,” the email said. 

“We honestly don’t know what it will take for this town to address this serious issue,” the email said. 

Supervisor Peter Barber on Tuesday expressed how proud he was with the town’s response to the storm, noting by Monday afternoon at 4 p.m., “Everything was all set.” 

“So I actually think it’s remarkable” that, within 48 hours of the storm ending, the town even had the sidewalks cleared, he said, noting the town wasn’t dealing with a typical winter storm on March 3 and 4. 

With sidewalk plowing, Barber said, C.J. Gallup, Guilderland’s parks and recreation director, has to pair up his workers “because the problem you have with sidewalks is everybody thinks they’re straight, but they’re not always straight. You gotta keep an eye out for people, cars, and whatnot.”

The town has four sidewalk plows, according to Barber, two that are two decades old and two others that were purchased in the past six years. “And then we have plans to add two new ones by next winter,” he said.

But equipment isn’t cheap, Barber said; a top-of-the-line sidewalk plow can cost as much as $130,000. “So it’s an investment. But we’ve made an investment over the years and we’re going to continue to do it.”

Gallup figured he’d be able to get to the sidewalks during the day Saturday, “and get it all done, like he typically does,” Barber said. The expectation on Friday afternoon had been that it would be a typical winter storm, he said, but it ended up being a “unique storm.” 

Barber said he received a call around 3 a.m., on Saturday morning, notifying him of widespread power outages in town.

Town crews were on Route 20, trying to clear downed trees. 

“It took a good two hours before we could even send snowplows out because there were trees blocking roads,” Barber said. “And the last thing you want to have happen is a plow hit a tree in the road.”

Around six o’clock on Saturday morning, Barber said he was on a call with town personnel from the highway and police departments.

“They were concerned about critical facilities,” Barber said. Town Hall and the State Police barracks off of Route 20 were without electricity, while in the town’s buildings housing emergency medical services power was “spotty at times.”

Guilderland also maintains a list of at-risk residents and those on life support, Barber said, for whom the town sent people to check on. “It’s all hands on deck, you know, public safety was first.”

Meanwhile, the updates from National Grid showed thousands of residences without power. By Saturday at 5 p.m., the company had restored power to approximately 53,000 of the 72,700 eastern New York customers affected by storm damage. “Quite frankly, during that entire time, I don’t think anybody once mentioned sidewalks,” Barber said. 

A number of municipalities put the onus on residents to clear the sidewalks in front of their homes or businesses, even threatening them with a fine for not doing so. But in Guilderland, the town takes responsibility for maintenance of sidewalks, Barber said, noting residents and businesses will also chip in to help with cleanup. “So it’s kind of a collective effort,” he said.

In the case of Route 20, a four-, five-, and sometimes six-lane highway, plowed snow can get pushed up and accumulate on the sidewalks, Barber said, describing “mountains of snow dumped on the sidewalk.”

Luckily, Gallup “is really experienced with this stuff,” Barber said; he coordinates Route 20 sidewalk plowing to commence after the state Department of Transportation trucks have finished clearing the streets. Because there’s no point in “doing it two, three or four times,” Barber said. 

Also, when there’s a weekend storm, what can happen, particularly with professional offices, is that parking lots don’t get cleared until late Sunday, Barber said, and then the snow gets pushed “towards the edges of the parking lot off and onto the sidewalk again.”

The coalition was clearly familiar with this explanation from Barber, noting in its email that, “We have heard excuses that the sidewalks are not plowed until the roads are clear because of the plows pushing snow back on the sidewalks. We have heard other excuses that there are no staff on the weekends. When will you take the responsibility to ensure the safety of pedestrians in this town during the winter months?”

Barber said town crews were working extended hours, sometimes to the detriment of their own homes. “I even had one guy who worked for parks and does some of the snowplowing,” Barber said, “had a tree on his house, but yet he still showed up at work to help out with critical facilities.”

By Sunday afternoon, Barber said, “We finally told these guys, ‘Look, you’ve got to go home, deal with your own issues. You need a break.”

It took the collective hardwork of the town’s crews to get it all done, Barber said, adding that it’s not as easy as sitting back and “just taking photographs of different locations.”