We wish to thank all the village of Brookfield employees, especially the Public Works Department, for the great job they did dealing with the third-worst snowstorm in Chicago history.
There was simply too much snow, no good place to put it and, despite early, accurate forecasting, too many people ignored the snow restrictions and parked on both sides of streets, impeding village plows.
During the immediate aftermath of the storm, it was clearly more effective to have everyone out in the field clearing streets rather than sitting in the office answering phone calls about snow parking restrictions which are posted on every block and updated on the village website.
In Theresa Valentine’s letter to the editor (“Poor response to resident’s calls,” Feb. 9), her anger is grossly misdirected. Her problem was caused by the four neighbors who did not move their vehicles. If everyone had parked on one side of the street per the snow restrictions, the village plow would have been able to totally clear one side and then the other instead of being forced to go down the middle.
We experienced similar difficulties. We watched a plow unable to get through on Lincoln for fear of damaging the car parked on the wrong side. We didn’t blame the village; we blamed the car owner and told her so.
I know everyone was stressed and frustrated by difficulties and obstacles caused or left by the storm, but blaming the people who worked and are still working to clean up our streets is neither fair nor proper.
It is unreasonable to think that anyone who pays taxes to the village of Brookfield gets to order village employees around, threaten their livelihoods and demand instant personal attention in the midst of cleanup.
The city of Chicago, with far greater resources, didn’t do as well as our village with its limited staff and budget. Thank you again to everyone at the village for your hard work and diligence. For those of you who are wondering, my husband and I are senior citizens, live on a corner with a side drive and are not, nor ever have been, related to anyone who works for the village of Brookfield.
Linda Mack-Tillotson
Brookfield
