Massive snow pile causing headaches for Trenton community

Friday, January 29, 2016
VIDEO: Noisy trucks, flooding fears over snow pile in Trenton
It's been nearly a week since the Blizzard of 2016 struck, but the cleanup effort is leaving people in one Trenton neighborhood very upset.

TRENTON, N.J. (WPVI) -- It's been nearly a week since the Blizzard of 2016 struck, and the cleanup effort is leaving people in one Trenton neighborhood very upset.

A steady flow of trucks has been going in and out of a city-owned lot on Taylor Street. It's where contractors have been dumping snow that has been cleared from city streets, and piling it high around the perimeter.

"You hear the backup, you hear the trucks constantly, you know going over the curb, backing in, backing out with that sound," said Valarie Carter.

"I have to apologize to her, it's just a means to get it all done," said Jackie Foushee, Trenton's public works director.

"Most of them work until six or nine, but occasionally we have to go to midnight if it's a safety concern," Foushee said.

It's not just the noise residents are worried about: it's also a giant pile of snow that's now being pushed back toward the fences of the houses on Taylor Street.

"My concern is: what's going to happen with the snow once it melts?" said Baye Kemit, who runs the Garvey School and can watch loaders piling up snow behind his fence.

"This is a flood zone. We've had major issues during Hurricane Irene, our building was flooded. Water has to go somewhere, so it's probably going to come onto our property, some of the houses here on this street," Kemit said.

The public works director says 750,000 tons of snow fell on Trenton and, a week later, this city is still digging out.

Employees haul garbage first, then switch to snowplows and are now joined by a small army of private contractors focusing on corners and side streets.

"It starts piling up. You don't have nowhere to go with it so you've just got to truck it out," said contractor Mark Litus.

"They woke me up kind of early but, I mean, it's better now. I won't have to struggle with my car sliding everywhere," said Raquel Neyra.

"Until now, they are really cleaning the streets after the last two days, but before that you really couldn't move nowhere," said Gabriel Santana.