It began as hundreds of residents complaints fell on deaf ears.
News12 Long Island has been swamped with calls from angry Long Islanders who have not seen plows on their streets since the snow fell, with the majority of calls coming from Brookhaven Town.
Deputy Brookhaven Town Supervisor, Dan Panico, has repeatedly been interviewed saying first that the stranded cars on the L.I.E., Route 347, North Ocean Avenue and some other major roads were impeding snow removal. One problem, the Town of Brookhaven is not responsible for snow (or car) removal on these state and county roadways.
Dan went on to blame Gov. Cuomo for not sending resources fast enough to the county and town. But is it really the Governor's responsibility to see that the local municipalities are prepared and equipped to handle snowfall removal in an area frequented by snowfall?
By Saturday evening Dan promised that everyone would awake on Sunday to see a noticeable difference on their streets. The sun rose Sunday over miles and miles of snow covered streets, still from Friday's snowfall. Later in the day on Sunday, Dan was on TV again, saying the condition of the roads in Brookhaven was "unacceptable". Guess what, Dan, we think so too!
Why are we only hearing from the Deputy Supervisor? It seems that Supervisor Ed Romaine is on vacation. Imagine that, just recently elected and having taken the oath of office and he already needed some time off. Nevermind the fact this blizzard was predicted as early as a week ago to hit us hard. Ed's vacation comes first, afterall these first few weeks in office must have been grueling.
Ed Romaine was elected by the good people of Brookhaven, most of whom believe he can't be fired until Election day. I propose we don't wait that long. We need to force a recall election. If it can be done to remove state governors, it can be done to remove town officials.
Dan Panico on the other hand, was not elected to his current office. Therefore he most certainly can and should be fired for his bungling of this mess. He and others "running" the town in the Supervisor's absence have shown they were unprepared, illequipped, and totally in over their heads.
You can join the movement to force a recall election of Supervisor Romaine and to fire Deputy Supervisor Panico here:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Recall-Ed-Romaine-Fire-Dan-Panico/128649057308271