Dear Editor,
Our town got whacked a few weeks ago with one of the worst storms I remember – and I’ve lived in the area for nearly my whole life. Within the span of a few minutes, massive trees were down all around town and my family had half of a huge maple laying in the backyard, just a few feet from our house. By the weekend, we had dragged out most of the maple branches and debris to the front yard and saw our neighbors doing the same, both in our area and throughout the Town. Just a few days later, almost like magic, our block was clear and blocks throughout Bethlehem were too. Of course it wasn’t magic, it was literally thousands of hours of incredible work by the public servants of our Highway Department. These Town workers, who themselves had to deal with the aftermath of the storm at their own homes, worked tirelessly to clear roads, remove debris, and generally get our Town back to normal.
Now, as leaves are falling and being dragged out to yard fronts, we’re seeing these Highway Department workers again step up in a big way. I’ve built three separate leaf-piles (each of which have been called ‘leaf mountains’ by our kids) in the front yard, and again like magic, they disappear thanks to the round-the-clock work of our Town workers. After months of yard work to pass the quarantine-time, and then a devastating storm, and now the regular deluge of leaves, the Town Highway Department has been there keeping our community looking clean and providing the high-quality service we expect from our local government. I just felt compelled to say ‘Thank You’ to this crew for everything they’ve done, and continue to do, to make Bethlehem a great place to live, work, raise a family, and retire.
Gary Ginsburg
Glenmont
