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DOING THE MATH
Your story about Santa Fe's failure to clear its streets of snow [Outtakes, Jan. 3: "
"] urges us, on the cover, to "do the math." All right then, here's the math: Santa Fe's six snowplows, plowing at 15 miles per hour, yield 90 miles of plowed lanes per hour. That's 2,160 miles of plowed lanes in one day, assuming that we have 18 qualified snowplow drivers working over three eight-hour shifts. If there are, as your article says, 1,200 "lane miles" in Santa Fe, then every street in Santa Fe should have been plowed by the end of New Year's Day, the main roads more than once.
If you add up the mileage of the entire length of Cerrillos, Agua Fria, East and West Alameda, St. Francis, Paseo, Old Santa Fe Trail, Old Pecos Trail and St. Michael's (which were in fact plowed), they span less than 40 miles. Multiply where necessary for multiple lanes, and you get two to four hours of work for our six snowplows, at a conservative speed. Where were the plows the other 20+ hours? Not on Canyon, Palace, Marcy, Grant, Water, San Francisco, nor many of the other streets that Santa Fe's visitors drive on, not to mention residents.
What's the true story here? The numbers just don't add up.
Mary-Charlotte Domandi
Santa Fe
WHY NO PLOWS?
Why can't the city pay people enough to get out and plow the roads? Simply put, if this city had experienced anything close to a blizzard, there would be people starving to death.
Let's see, maybe they had a reason not to plow. In fact, yes, didn't someone state that they couldn't plow because they didn't know where to put the snow? Well, as a friend of mine put it, maybe they can put the snow next to all the little crosses that are going to crop up on the side of the roads in the next few days to mark all the fatal accidents that will result.
Why can the road up through Hyde Park to the ski basin get plowed constantly, but the city bus stops and the turn lanes on even the major roads cannot get plowed? Something is very wrong when Park & Ride buses get stuck in the snow. How can this be all right? I know this is a tourist town, I know the tourists must be kept happy on their ski vacations, but can't some of that tourist tax be used to pay folks to clear the roads?
After all, what's more expensive, making the streets safe and passable to the everyday citizen or the class action lawsuit that comes about from the myriad citizens who are forced to surf the street moguls to get to work or the store or the doctor and now their vehicle's suspension is shot to hell? Just a thought.
Karen Thomas
La Mesilla
IT'S A MESS
Thank you for your article regarding the terrible conditions of the Santa Fe roads and the city's lengthy street clearing/plowing process after the huge snowstorm.
I flew back to town after the storm hit and was appalled at how little the city had actually done as far as snow removal on the roads. I called the mayor's office to ask why and was transferred to the Public Works Department and then to the "Streets" Department. I spoke with a woman in the office there and she said the city was working as fast as they could to clear the roads and that they only owned four plows (your article says six). This alone shocked me. I realize this storm was unprecedented, as storms go; however, shouldn't the city be prepared? (Especially given the fact that the weather in the area is always so unpredictable). She took my number and told me her supervisor would call me back to tell me why certain streets were not cleared and to talk about specific streets. She said all the main roads had been cleared at that point, but she obviously had not been out driving on the roads. Parts of Cordova, Alameda, Old Santa Fe Trail, Canyon, Guadalupe, Galisteo, Don Gaspar and many other streets were still in terrible condition. And over the past few days since I have been back, I never once saw a city plow, I never heard from the supervisor. The sun came out and has been slowly melting the remaining snow, but still, the lack of street clearing for that amount of snow, in my opinion, is totally unacceptable.
Faith Strongheart
Santa Fe
DANGEROUS CHOICES
A week after our latest storm, the side roads of Santa Fe are still totally undrivable. I cannot understand why the city does not feel that it is responsible for the safety of its neighborhood residents. Two nights ago, a snowplow finally drove down my street…with its plow UP! The result was to make the bad situation worse by generating even more churned-up snow that is incredibly dangerous to drive on. Most of the streets in Casa Alegre are so bad that only one car can barely make it down the middle. Last night, I had a choice to make: hit an oncoming car head-on, or veer over onto a snowbank and almost hit two pedestrians! Did the city spend my property taxes elsewhere?
M Lisa Phipps
Santa Fe
THE CRISIS IS REAL
The cover story "
" [Dec. 13, 2006], by Nathan Dinsdale and Dan Frosch, captured the discouraging reality of inadequate health care services faced by Indian people everywhere.
We would like to add some important information to the assertion made that, "The final decline of the Albuquerque Indian Hospital was precipitated by several area tribes withdrawing their IHS money from the Albuquerque Service Unit two years ago."
The decline in services at the Albuquerque Indian Hospital and at the Santa Fe Service Unit are due solely to decades of inadequate levels of funding provided by the US Congress for health care services for Native Americans. It is not due to "several area tribes withdrawing their IHS money from the Albuquerque Service Unit."
More than 60 percent of tribal governments nationally have exercised their sovereign right under Public Law 93-638, the Indian Self-Determination and Educational Assistance Act, and have taken control of federal programs. While it may be true for smaller tribes that their portion of IHS funding is "hardly adequate for expanding and improving on the existing system without contributing additional tribal resources such as casino revenues," many medium and larger tribes have contracted and administered successful health care programs with only IHS funding and revenue from Medicaid, Medicare and private insurance.
The crisis in Native American health care is real, and our Tribal Health Board appreciates the focus SFR has put on this issue. Tribes are in the unfortunate position of defending the minimal services that exist, along with being pitted against other tribes and Indian people living in cities for these scarce services. It will take concerted efforts at all levels by people who are truly interested in helping to improve health care services at the Santa Fe Indian Hospital and around the county.
Charlotte Little
Chair
San Felipe Pueblo Health Board
San Felipe Pueblo
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