Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - In a written response on Monday via social media, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said he wanted to develop a memorandum of understanding with snowmobile clubs to access vehicles in the event of another major storm.
One such club leader reached by WBEN says he's waiting to hear from Poloncarz on the matter.
Part of Poloncarz's response to the Christmas weekend storm called for "developing MOUS with area snowmobile clubs to utilize their tracked trail groomer vehicles."
Brent Marshall of the Hamburg Snowmobile Club says he's met with other snowmobile clubs, but he's yet to meet with Poloncarz. "We really haven't reached an agreement or we haven't really talked to them to finalize any real commitments of where we would be or how the staging would look like," says Marshall. He says he's still waiting for the finalization of where they would be.
If an agreement is reached, Marshall says he envisions having some sort of headquarters where someone leads a command post. "Somebody that's in charge of this right upfront that would say, 'Hey, this is the command post, we're going to activate Hamburg, we're going to activate Southern Tier, or Northern Snow Seekers,' and then we have a direct command post with them, that tells us, 'we want to go here, here and here.' And, and can deal directly with one person, what we had in the past with phone calls," explains Marshall. He notes having to deal with one fire company and a different police agency became confusing during the storm.
Marshall hopes a meeting with Poloncarz will come sooner than later. "Before the snow flies, or we even get close to that season, just because I would like to have some sort of a game plan as far as knowing who's going where, what clubs would be activated and where they should go," notes Marshall. He says it's about timing with the faster the response, the fewer lives would be at risk.
