Elderly people who cannot go shopping or go to shuffleboard. It is a result of snow and ice that community nurse Gea Arends-Bremer is concerned about. The elderly people she cares for do not dare to cross the street because it is too slippery and they are forced to stay at home.
“It’s close to my heart. How often do you hear that those people go to get a sandwich and break a leg or a hip? Then I think, how simple is it that you just clean that street,” said the district nurse.
One of the elderly who does not dare to go out is 93-year-old Gré Speelman. She lives in an apartment on the Stoffer Holtjerweg in Eelde. “We were going to play shuffleboard this afternoon, but that has passed due to the slippery conditions. What needs to be done here is to sprinkle some water. It is always slippery with snow,” says Speelman.
According to Arends-Bremer, the building where Mrs Speelman lives is not the only one with problems. According to her, the dead-end part of the Burgemeester Strubenweg is also dangerous. There is no sidewalk there and the street itself has been turned into an ice skating rink. “Many elderly people also live there. They cannot walk across it, that is not familiar.”
The policy of the municipality of Tynaarlo is that gritting is first done on bus routes. Then on major through routes for bicycles and cars and finally on roads that ensure that a village has a connection to those roads. Only then will the municipality start with residential areas, with priority being given to schools and public buildings.
An initiative by the district nurse to ensure that the streets around elderly homes are cleared of snow has stalled. The search for volunteers in particular proves difficult. Arends-Bremer: “Just like us, people work during the day, so it is difficult. I have been working with the municipality for a year.”
“If it has been sprinkled and the weather is like this, we can still go out for a while. Now we have to sit inside, which I think is a great pity,” concludes Gré Speelman.