BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — After the first snowfall of the season, people are gearing up for more snow in the coming days. David Even, Vice President of Arthur's Hardware in Orchard Park, said it comes as a surprise that winter supplies, like snow blowers, are going quickly this early in the season.
"A lot of people coming in for snowblowers and the shovels and then obviously the snow brushes and stuff are starting to pick up and then a lot of winter gloves," Even said, "We're about halfway sold through already."
As Western New Yorkers prep for snow, some Erie County lawmakers are wondering how prepared the county is for winter.
"We haven't seen a plan yet," Legislator Chris Green said.
After seeing the City of Buffalo's snow plan, some viewers reached out asking where the county's winter plan is. 7 News' Kristen Mirand brought those questions to Greene, Legislator Jim Malczewski and Minority Leader John Mills.
"They still haven't done enough to put the right foot forward to make sure that they have a solid plan in place," Malczewski said.
The legislators said that communication and coordination need to improve, especially after last year's deadly Christmas Blizzard.
"This should have been taken care of six months ago. At the legislature, we have not heard an awful lot of information, and that concerns me, especially coordinating in the specifics of the state coordinating with the county and the county coordinating with the city," Mills said.
In a recent sit-down interview with 7 News, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz addressed his handling of the blizzard.
"There's no other storm that was like that, and I think what we would've done was a little bit of a better job of informing the public beforehand," Poloncarz said.
Legislator Malczewski said he attended an Association of Erie County Government meeting last week and received an 8-page county winter storm response enhancements plan. It outlines public communication, plans for more tracked vehicles and a blizzard rating scale.
"If this is the solution or answer to how we're going to deal with a massive storm like we had last year, I'm very concerned," Malczewski
The Democratic Majority Caucus declined a request for an interview but shared there will be more discussions about this in late November. Erie County will be holding a press conference on Friday regarding storm response.
