Since the roads and sidewalks in Happy Valley are a comfortable blanket of icky sludge, let's talk about the inadequate job the State College Borough did in cleaning up the wintry mess.

Granted, clearing streets covered with a foot of snow, sleet and ice is a difficult job. But someone has to do it -- and do it well. Aside from the major arteries, which were cleared down to a few inches of packed snow/ice, most of the borough's streets are still piles of white stuff.

With about five days without student cars in parking lots and streets, the borough and private property owners had plenty of time to make roads, walkways and parking lots clear and safe. But what covers the borough is a disgusting -- and in many spots hazardous -- mess.

At least some local officials recognize the borough's snow removal ills. At the borough council's work session Monday night, council member Tom Daubert said he hasn't seen the borough looking this bad in 30 years.

Flip that same snowy coin, and many private home owners and apartment renters should be ashamed. We have a responsibility to scrape, chip and shovel away the snow and ice from our properties within 12 hours of the last flakes.

When people fail to clear their walkways, others (including children) are forced to walk in heavily traveled streets. And those who don't take their shoveling seriously can be slapped with fines from $2 to $10. If you don't pay your fine and the cost of prosecution, you could end up spending five days in jail.

The University can't hold its snowy head high either. Have you tried sledding to class yet? Many pathways are covered with snow and ice, making them treacherous. Some parking lots have cruddy piles of hardened snow; accidents are bound to happen with other cars and pedestrians obstructed from view by the piles. Now that classes are in full swing, it's even more important for the University to take its snow removal more seriously.

If the last few storms to blow through the region are any indication (see Blizzard of '93, Big Storm of '94), a long winter awaits. It could also be a dangerous one unless people learn how to cope with winter's mess.