East Orange, NJ, January 5, 2018: Mayor Ted R. Green's first week in office was baptized by the proverbial fire of Winter Storm Grayson, which started rising along the East Coast on Wednesday night and landing in Northern New Jersey early Thursday morning.
Mayor Green started his second day in office on Tuesday, January 2nd planning with key members of his team and the Local Emergency Preparedness Committee to ensure that streets were passable for travel and that citizens received notifications and real-time updates on winter advisories and closings/delays through a coordinated communications effort with the East Orange Board of Education.
"You can never fool with Mother Nature and I am glad that we prepared for the worst case scenario despite earlier predictions of only 1-2 inches of snow," said Mayor Green. "Our DPW team has been working tirelessly around the clock since early Thursday morning to keep our streets clear. As I rode around the city, I noticed that the major hindrances to our clean-up efforts were parked cars and people throwing snow back into the street."
According to Christopher Coke, Acting Director of the Department of Public Works, two dozen trucks began prepping the roads with approximately 350 tons of salt starting at 2am on Thursday. Plow operations continued until 8pm and started again at 4am on Friday. Coke urged property owners, especially those of large multi-family buildings, not to throw snow back into the street.
Moving forward, Mayor Green said that his administration will execute an aggressive enforcement campaign to get cars off the road in preparation for the next storm. He also plans to coordinate with churches and other business owners to provide free parking to motorists who must find alternative parking during major storms.
"Parked cars and counterproductive illegal activity such as throwing snow back into the street will not be allowed to jeopardize the safety of our entire community," said Mayor Green. "The 3.9 square miles of our city makes snow removal a very manageable process, but we need the cooperation of everyone to make cleaning it up a success."
If there are questions regarding snow removal or no parking rules, please call the Mayor's Office of Constituent Services at 973.266.5151. To receive community notifications, please sign up on our website at www.eastorange-nj.gov or visit us on Facebook and Twitter@EOCityHall.
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