WINTER SEASON

 Now that the winter season is upon us please take a moment to read these reminders from the Town of Woodstock Highway Department.

Town of Woodstock is comprised of 4 main types of roadways, State Roads, County Roads, Town Roads, and Private Roads. Each roadway is maintained by its owner, that being said The Town of Woodstock Highway Department is responsible for Town Roads. If you have problems with a road other, then a Town Road, please direct your concerns to the appropriate owner.  

Plow drivers work extreme hours during snow season to keep the Town roads as clear as possible. In order for the blades on the plow to do its job, the driver has to maintain a certain speed, otherwise the blade won’t hold to the road and there won’t be a clean surface for you to drive on.

Our normal plow routes take approximately 4 hours to complete. During heavy snow these routes generally have to get done numerous times. Depending on the storm, we may have to change our priorities from “clear the roadway” to “make it pass-able and go back later to clean up”.

We can not stop for every driveway or mailbox in town. If we did, we would be creating hazards as large chunks of the road would remain unplowed and this would add an extreme amount of time to our already heavy workload. The Highway Departments priority is maintaining the roadway not making mailboxes accessible.

Damage to mailboxes and/or posts is a casualty of snowplowing due to reduced visibility. Usually it is the heavy, wet snow rolling off the plows that causes unavoidable damages the mailboxes. Legally, the Town is not responsible for mailbox damage (highway Law, Section 319).

Please remember it is illegal to shovel any snow BACK into a cleared roadway. Consider not clearing your driveway until after the roadways are done, otherwise, your newly cleared driveway may be filled back in with snow. This is NOT intentional, and we will not come back to shovel of plow your driveway.

Find below some important phone numbers that may be useful this winter.

Town of Woodstock Police Dispatch 845-679-2424

Town of Woodstock Highway Department 845-679-2805

NYS DOT- Mount Tremper 845-688-2241 – Kingston 845-331-5533

Ulster Count DPW 845-340-3500

Please be patient and drive slow in the snow.

Stay Safe,

Donald Allen

Town of Woodstock

Highway Superintendent