The Millinocket Public Works Department's snowplowing practices. Every winter, I have a much harder time cleaning up after them than I do the snow itself. They can turn even a moderate snowstorm into a 24-hour ordeal by burying my driveway and sidewalk every time they pass by with the plow. After the snow stopped yesterday, I had everything cleared, as far as my driveway, sidewalk, and other paths. Although there was no additional snow, they managed to pack my driveway and sidewalks with slush that froze solid overnight, and I can't even chip it away today. Although there was no further snow, they spent the night moving slush from the road onto the driveways and sidewalks.
This isn't a one-time thing. That's what they do every winter. The town has a sidewalk plow, but they have never once, as far as I have seen, used it on my side of the street. On the other side of the street, they routinely plow the sidewalk after every snowfall and scoop snowbanks into their truck to haul away, but we're fortunate if they do that even once during a winter on our side of the street. By the end of winter, we can't even see over the snowbank to tell if a car is coming, which is a problem, especially for my wife, who insists on parking forward in the driveway, meaning she then has to back out blindly onto the road.
If I can't shovel my snow into the road, then they shouldn't be able to plow their snow into my driveway. If they refuse to clear the sidewalks on my side of the road, then they shouldn't bury them with snow and slush every time they pass by. I don't expect them to plow my driveway, but neither should they block it. Frequently, I have shoveled the driveway so that we could get out to go the store or somewhere, only to find that, on my return, I have shovel the entrance to the driveway again, because the plow had gone by.
We rented a house in Fort Kent, Maine, a few years ago while I was working on our camp, and the Fort Kent Public Works Department didn't do that. After a large snowstorm, they would indeed focus on clearing the road, which meant temporarily blocking driveways, but once the roads were clear, they would clear the snow that they might have plowed into people's driveways. In fact, one day, we had a snowstorm while I was checking on our house in Millinocket, leaving Michelle alone in Fort Kent. She was trying to shovel the driveway herself, which she generally wouldn't do, and the Public Works guy stopped the plow and cleared the driveway for her. No one expects that, but he did.
However, in Millinocket, rather than cleaning up after themselves, they will spend the night scraping the streets onto everyone's driveways and sidewallks.
