LEXINGTON, Ky. — The snow and ice have temporarily stopped falling, but there is plenty of clean-up to be done.
Malik Washington is the owner of Washington Landscaping. The company’s slogan is “Obsessed with the finished product.” Washington said calls have been coming in for a few days, each asking the company to trade out their lawnmowers for snow shovels temporarily.
Washington and his team are doing just that. The company is helping remove snow from porches, driveways and sidewalks that still need service after the winter storm.
“When I got to this neighborhood, I could tell it had been hit before, but probably needed to be hit again or kind of bad. When you get to the main road, it’s much, much more clear. But that’s just more reason why we want to come out here and just to help people if they need to get out and be safe,” Washington said.
While Washington and others are tending to homes, the director of Lexington’s streets and road department, Rob Allen said the city is continuing to load trucks with salt.
Lexington’s snow and ice control plan organizes street and sidewalk plowing by four-level rankings. Primary roads to and from the city, for instance, the main street downtown is level one.
While roads within a neighborhood that connect people to a main road would be a level four, which Allen said can take a little more time.
“When you have to deal with on-street parking or folks putting snow back out into the street a lot more hills, we can’t treat cul de sacs and courts because of the length of the truck. When you add the plow, it can’t make the turn radius,” Allen explained.
Allen emphasized that while many roads will be cared for, the plan is strictly about access to a safe route.
“It’s not designed to treat every road. It’s to get people within a reasonable distance of a treated road,” he said.
As street and road crews make their way through the city, Washington said his company will be out for the rest of the week, doing their part to help.
On Sunday Lexington, Mayor Linda Gorton shared that as roads are being taken care of, street parking is available, but they encourage people to try to avoid the routes in which plow trucks will come through. You can find that plan on the city’s website.