We had four to five inches of dry powder fall last night. You didn’t even have to brush your car off- driving and wipers would blow it all off, yet, schools are closed and even the base is closed. LexisNexis shut down- an internet based business- more so because the employees have to stay home to take care of kids who are staying home. Ripple effect.
Costs to businesses- huge. Cost to community huge.
And, let’s face it- most of the people who get to play hookey for the day- are still getting paid. Teachers- paid. Base employees – paid. Note- these people get paid with tax dollars. The working poor- who are slaving minimum wage jobs to begin with- who now have to make other arrangements for child care- they don’t get paid if they don’t work.
This is called inequity. And the root cause? Government that can’t get the job of plowing streets done. They claim they don’t have the money to do it.
So- simple solution- take the teachers pay- take the base employees pay- and put it into a snow day fund- that pays for roads to be cleared.
Or- maybe, change the laws about snow days- and make them mandatory make up days in the summer- maybe that way, they won’t continue to be paid days off. As to the base employees- I don’t recall the grunts in the Korean War, or the Battle of the Bulge getting days off because of a little snow. Last I checked, we’re still flying missions- and at war somewhere- so there are no excuses for staying home.
Oh, but, the risk of accident or injury from driving in these “horrible conditions”- suck it. Learn how to drive in the snow- or move to Florida. Just kidding- but the reality is, if this city hadn’t sprawled- we wouldn’t have the miles of roads to clear. Bad leadership, still hasn’t taken responsibility for proper emergency services. Need an example- just look at the current fight over who is going to provide Fire and EMS to the Cornerstone project. Seriously, if the ‘burbs and townships can’t get their act together- they should immediately be disbanded and forced to become part of the county- who should be responsible for clearing all the roads- not individual municipalities.
This isn’t my first rant about snow days- here are two oldies but goodies:
It’s time we stopped worrying as much about “economic development” which isn’t governments job- and start worrying about keeping the streets, schools, businesses and military bases open which is governments job. It’s time for the snow sissy’s to be held accountable and made to pay for their lame decisions.
What do they do in Canada? Do they take snow months?
Yesterday I saw an interesting example of one business that tries to take advantage of snow days. IKEA is advertising that if you bring your kids to IKEA on their snow day they eat for free.
Honestly I don’t think the snow was that bad, and I could have taken my son to school, despite the fact that the roads are not being plowed and salted to the extent they were in the past because of the salt shortage. If anyone ever travels to a northern state like Michigan, Wisconsin or Minnesota they will notice that they do not salt as extensively as Ohio communities do. It is my observation that people in those Northern latitudes get by just fine. No defcon 3 emergencies for two inches of snow like we do here. Am I wrong?
Dave, your post reeks of grumpy old man.
“Hey you kids! Get your damn sleds off my yard! You should be in school! Why, in my day, we……”
@Nick Brusky- no they don’t salt as much. They plow. They also know how to drive in snow- slow down, open up distances, and turn in the direction of the skid.
With ABS brakes- front wheel drive cars- traction control- it’s really easy to drive in snow compared to what it used to be (unless you drive a Mustang).
When I was little- we moved to Toronto- and I thought, I’m going to make more money shoveling snow- and the reality is- you get more South of the lakes than North of it.
But- yes- other cities operate fine with a lot more snow.
There is no excuse.
And Dave C- in your day- they didn’t even have cars….
Yes, they did have cars “in my day”. And you could have any color you want, as long as it’s black.
Well, David, perspective perspective. Yes, people in Dayton often don’t know how to drive in snow. Then again, I do, and this morning saw me slipping and sliding more than I was comfy. That, incidentally, was on major routes.
When I lived in South Carolina, they closed everything for 2 inches of snow–schools, university, state government, offices, shopping malls. If you don’t get snow practice, you lose the skills–as the many fander-benders in that South Carolina winter attested.
I also have driven school bus through the western hills of Cincinnati. It’s not safe in this kind of weather, I don’t care how skilled a driver you are. And even if you can keep yourself out of danger, there are the other loonies who think 4-wheel drive prevents skidding.
Economy? An ahstraction. Danger, injuries, letting your life be ruled hy the clock, the calendar, the paycheck–sad realities. I choose to come down on the side of overly safe.
If you drove without clearing off you car you are one of the biggest idiots on the road. You are a hazard to everyone on the road. That and you were not clearly on the roads any time this morning. They were awful.
Also David not every car has ABS and Traction control. I believe it was only mandated starting with cars in 2006 model year, but I guess you think everyone should just go buy a new car.
LexisNexis did not shut down today. It had a two hour delay for nonessential personnel.
@Joe- not that big of an idiot- it was just that this is blowable snow- not slushy icy snow.
And- again- the reason the roads are awful- because we have incompetent snow removal in Dayton. There is no excuse for this little amount of light powder to not be easily cleared.
As to LN- I was going by a photo of an empty parking lot that a friend posted- who missed the 2 hour delay notice.
As to what that 2 hours cost….
Ask the people at LN Jon. I’m sure it was more than it costs to pay 100 more plow drivers.
The economic cost of typical snow day is negligible. Business does not stop because of a snow day and any delays or losses of productivity caused by the snow simply roll into a future time period. So LexisNexis did go into work on Wed and lower their revenue projections for 2015 by 1/365th to account for the snow day.
The problem with the prevalence of snow and cold days is that it is making our kids into to entitled wusses, which ends up carrying over into the workplace when they get older. We’ve had parents call to complain that their 24 year old did not get a promotion.
Exactly @Joe Mamma- there are no paid days for snow closings at the minimum wage jobs we’re getting them prepared for.
Many kids walk – and are not bussed. Dayton School policy is kids under 1.5 miles (unless they are in a special program, or have to cross something like a highway) are walkers. These are not just teens – these are little kids. All the road plowing and salting is not going to get all the sidewalks cleared for kids to safely walk to school – and sometimes its just too cold. Now, I have the means and resources to get my kid to school on my own (and I do – even though he is eligible I am not putting a 3 year old on a bus), but not all parents can. And my son has nice boots and a warm coat and gloves, and not every kid in his school does.
But really, good employers understand that sometimes you just do the human thing and take a snow day for the safety of your staff and/or their kids. We should be applauding those that do, and working to get ALL workers those protections, not making an attack on teachers – for the love of God, did you really just imply teachers are slacking for pay on a snow day? They are SALARIED workers – that’s how it works. They don’t get bonuses for the hours of off clock work they do grading and planning, and I’ll wager many of them used the snow day to get caught up on grading.
So your grand plan is to take from the few decent salaried middle class workers so that WalMart and their ilk can continue to ding hourly workers doesn’t really fly in my book. The injustice isn’t that salaried people get a benefit – the injustice is that employers are permitted to exploit hourly laborers with unfair and inhumane policies.
@Karri – the problem with salaried workers getting a snow day- was mostly directed to WPAFB employees.
The teachers- I’m for no missed days- any day closed- gets made up. No 5 days, no x number of hours. I’m sorry- esp with Dayton which still can’t pull it’s scores out of the dumpster. The kids need to be in school and learning. I believe the answer to schools in academic emergency is 6 day a week school like in Japan. Longer school days as well.
And as to walking in 4″ of snow- it can be done. I did it for years in Cleveland. It would help if citizens would shovel their walks- another lost art in Dayton.
As to Walmart- I’ve already said publicly many times- if you have employees on public assistance- you get billed that back. End of story.
I’m not against making up school days, and I know you are against the corporate welfare. Just pointing out that going after salaried jobs for public work shortfalls isn’t the best thought you’ve expressed.
DPS certainly needs some help, but the primary issue is student poverty levels, not (just) crappy leadership or poor teachers.
But because I can’t help myself :
http://wdtn.com/2015/01/07/icy-roads-contribute-to-school-bus-crash/
Karri- again, “The working poor- who are slaving minimum wage jobs to begin with- who now have to make other arrangements for child care- they don’t get paid if they don’t work.”
And there is ZERO excuse for icy roads here.
That wasn’t a bad snowfall. It should have been cleared.
We can also fix some of our stupidity- by changing a state law about pickup points.
Currently it requires practically door to door service- with a pickup point within something like 250′ from your nearest intersection. Change it. Make kids walk to a “Rally Point” bus stop- within a quarter mile- where it is easy to collect kids. A church parking lot- a school building near by- etc.
There are places that get more than what we had EVERY DAY in the winter- and they don’t shut down. Wake up please.
My point, again, is that perhaps the energy is better spent trying to actually create laws that help the working poor not slave at minimum wage jobs with no protections (which hey, also would help with the poverty problems in the schools) rather than try to reign in the weather. But cleaning up stupid laws will always have my support, and I understand that making real progress in changing inequality in the workforce is about as futile as building a weather controlling machine right now.
And please remember that some of these kids can’t walk or can’t walk that 250′ distance safely (due to age or the nature of their disability, or in some cases the disability of their caretakers). Seriously. I know you are talking about *most* kids, and I’m sure you are for such reasonable considerations. Just know how hard it is to draft legislation that does walk that line.