As Snow Falls Majority of Pamelia

Town Board May Gut the Highway

Dept.
As your elected Town of Pamelia Highway Superintendent, it is important for you to know that funding for critical
DPW services including snow plowing and road maintenance are on the chopping block. I was elected as your Town
Highway Superintendent in 2015. I take my responsibility to plow, maintain and improve your Town roads seriously.
Over the last 7 years your highway department has repaved or reprofiled 13.41 miles of road. We have plowed snow
from the town roads to keep you moving safely. We stepped up our roadside brush control program to improve sight
distances, improved drainage to protect and preserve precious pavement, improved culverts to reduce flooding from
heavy rains and melting snow. Our work requires dedicated workers driving heavy machinery when conditions are
the worst mother nature has to offer. We do it with pride and respect for the needs of our neighbors and the travelling
public.
In 2017 we started a program of planned replacement of the Town’s outdated highway equipment. Many plow trucks
were over 20 years old and growing increasingly unreliable. At my request the Town Board approved funding to
purchase three new heavy International Plow Trucks, one new Caterpillar Loader for handling road salt and a used
Gradall for drainage work. We also requisitioned and the Town Board approved buying 2 new light pickup trucks
with plows to maintain your neighborhoods and side roads. When your highway superintendent and Town Board
work together we can keep the roads open during the worst storms, maintain your highways and plan for the future of
our Town.
We live in a Town that does not charge you a property tax and we all benefit from it. Your highway department’s
expenses are paid from the Town’s general fund and always have been. Pamelia has a healthy fund balance with more
than enough money to execute a well planned capital replacement plan for highway equipment. In past years, the
Town Board routinely funded replacement of highway equipment and smartly deployed your funds to ensure that vital
highway services will continue at the high level that we all expect and demand.
Unfortunately, after the last election cycle things changed, for the worse. The Town Board’s orderly planned
replacement program for highway equipment has been repeatedly voted down by the slimmest of margins. My
proposals to sell our used plow trucks when they have the highest value and to reinvest the proceeds in newer and
more efficient trucks with active warranties has gotten a thumbs down from the same slim majority. These decisions
are not in the best interests of the travelling public and make little financial sense for taxpayers. As it stands today,
Pamelia will run its heavy equipment until it has little value and only then consider replacement. This is not a sensible
plan and may well leave us all without the vital equipment we need to plow the roads.
Your highway department can generate revenues for the Town. Last month the Town had an opportunity to ink a
contract with the County of Jefferson to plow the County Roads in our Town. Rather than seize the opportunity to put
your capital equipment to work earning money for the Town, the naysayers on your Town Board suggested that your
Town should pay the County to plow the Town roads! The net result of that suggestion will be your tax dollars paying
another Town to plow your roads. I have seen the County Snow and Ice contract and it will cost you a lot more to
operate that way.
Why do I bring these matters to your attention and risk reprisals from the very Town Board that funds my work?
Because I am elected by you and I work for you, not the Town Board. We, the travelling public, Town residents,
taxpayers and voters must take action or risk losing the vital service of your highway department. Please come and
support your highway dept. at the next Town Board meeting.

Respectfally Bruce Call Town of Pamelia Highway Superintendent