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Health & Fitness

Room for Improvement

Based on what I've observed in my neighborhood (W. Natick), there's quite a bit of room for improvement in terms of plowing, sidewalk shoveling, fire hydrant identification, etc. After the two early Dec. storms, 90% of the sidewalks were not shoveled or snow-blown by home owners. Even when they were cleared, commercial driveway plowers left big snow berms at either side of the driveways which obstructed sidewalks. Town sidewalk and street plows leave large berms on street corners. 95% of the newly built curb cuts and bumpy steel ramps for handicap accessibility were totally obstructed by large snow berms (probably illegal, but who can enforce it?). People generally walk in the street for a number of days after the storms. And very few fire hydrants have identifying flags. Have to fix this.
Looks like we could use some help from our municipal departments and committees educating citizens about their responsibilities after storms. We need more of a team effort between the homeowners, private plow folks, the DPW, Safe Steps, Ped-Bike Committees (a dialogue). 
I'm trying to initiate a little project in my neighborhood called "Greensafe Neighbors." Let me know if you're interested in helping. 

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