The Politics of Snow Removal: Schodack New York

As I write this in early 2011 the down state New York area has just dug out of a large snow storm. No one is at this moment quite sure why the streets were plowed so badly in the tri State area during and after this storm. Tax paying citizens in an uproar , mayors & the New Jersey Governor are in a scramble to explain. This will as well pass. I am an old enough old goat to remember in High School the February of 1969 NYC storm when Lindsay was mayor {when there was such a thing as a moderate Republican}. Plows got out late , the city in semi mayhem. I had attended a rowing event in the city shortly before and got out just in time. It all passed. So what does this have to do with the Town of Schodack , New York. Well , all political type people know or should know that these nature made events can effect political careers. How one administratively handles these moments can turn an election , nationally and on a local basis. In the mid 1920's a young Pol named Lewis V. Hudson was the newly elected Superintendent of Highways. He would later be county commissioner of roads. Schodack was if not the first , one of the first towns in New York State to run their snow plows 24 hrs a day during storms. This started circa 1926. A rural town with farmers needing to get produce to market , schools needing to be opened people needing to get to work in factories or get to a doctor. All these of concern. The innovation of 24 hr plowing was new and Schodack was doing it. Various logistic problems arose , such as getting gas to the trucks when there were few gas stations back then and none open 24hrs a day. In interviews later in his life Hudson talked about how he had to get in his own pickup truck late at night and deliver gas to the plows by gas can. Sometimes even at 2:00 am. Such was life in a small town back then. The point is schools were open more often , people got to work more safely and less babies were delivered in farm houses and got medical care quicker. Hudson as I may have mentioned in earlier blogs was in elected political office for over 40yrs. Hudson would partially give credit to 24 hr snow plowing as a major boost to his reelections. A simple lesson in administrative politics from a small town the streets got plowed voters remember.