FARMINGDALE — An elderly couple is worried that the town’s plow contractor isn’t digging them out soon enough after snowstorms.
Floyd and Merleen Ahearn, who live on an extenion off First Street, first complained to selectmen last week about the plow contractor, Christopher Ellis, of Ellis Construction.
The couple, who raised concerns about an ambulance or fire truck getting through to them if they had an emergency, said the town’s the previous contractor always plowed the street shortly after a storm. Floyd is 74 and Merleen is 65.
“My husband and I are not in good health. If we need an ambulance in there, we’re in trouble,” Merleen Ahearn told selectmen. “We shouldn’t be doing it. We pay our taxes.”
Ellis couldn’t be reached for comment, but his wife and the company president, Angie Ellis, said they later spoke to the Ahearns and explained the company policy.
“Every time there is a storm, that street gets plowed like any other, except it is a secondary road,” Angie Ellis said Thursday. “You do the primary roads first — the major thoroughfares — and then you do the secondaries. So, that road doesn’t get treated any differently than any other road — it gets plowed and sanded.”
The Ahearns initially claimed their road wasn’t being plowed at all, but Ellis Construction officials said it was getting plowed — just not as soon as the Ahearns would like.
“My job after a storm is I will go and check the roads,” Angie Ellis said. “And it clearly has been plowed.”
This is the second year of Ellis Construction’s three-year contract to plow the rural and urban roads in town, as well as the sidewalks.
Merleen Ahearn said Thursday that she and her husband have noticed Ellis Construction plowing and sanding their street since they complained to selectmen, but they’re still not pleased with the job and prefer the previous contractor the town used. They’ve lived there since 1969, she said.
“I’ve gotten results now, but I’m not satisfied,” she said. “It wasn’t fair what he was doing.”
Correspondent Joyce Grondin contributed to this story.
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