Plow funds at issue after

The state agency under fire for not clearing snow from the VFW Parkway, where four high school students were hit by a pickup truck Friday, has had its funding slashed by 37 percent since 2001, despite having to maintain parks and roads from the Berkshires to Cape Cod.

The decline has sparked concern among lawmakers that the agency, the Department of Conservation and Recreation, lacks money to keep roads and sidewalks free of snow while caring for its network of mountain trails, beach paths, lakes, and ponds.

Three of the students injured Friday remained hospitalized yesterday. Officials, meanwhile, debated whether a lack of funding, or poor management, explained why sidewalks throughout the city that are under the agency's control -- including the dangerous stretch of road where the four students were hit -- had not been plowed, two weeks after the blizzard hit last month.

State Senator Jarrett T. Barrios said he would convene a hearing of the Legislature's Public Safety Committee this week to examine the circumstances of the accident, and to investigate whether the agency needs more money.

Cutbacks have reduced the budget for the state parks system from almost $106 million in 1989 to just about $69 million this year, according to data tracked by the Environmental League of Massachusetts, an advocacy group.

Barrios announced the hearing after Governor Mitt Romney demanded -- and received -- the prompt resignation of the agency's commissioner, Katherine F. Abbott. Romney blamed her after the accident for not having kept parkways free of snow.

''Doing a full investigation gets to the root problem; firing somebody offhand without any investigation smacks of scapegoating," Barrios said yesterday. The hearing will focus on ''how to get safe sidewalks," he added.

''Maybe it was bad management, but maybe it wasn't," Barrios said. ''They don't have the ability to rub two sticks together and make a snowplow. Money doesn't come from heaven."

The accident involved four West Roxbury High School students who were walking in the busy travel lanes of the VFW Parkway at about 7:30 a.m. on Friday. Brian Sheehan, 45, of Boston, driving a 1995 Toyota pickup, struck them as they walked toward his vehicle in the right-hand lane, according to reports from the State Police.

It was not clear why the students were not on the sidewalk, less than 10 feet away, which was plowed, although a sidewalk across the street was not. The students, ranging in age from 14 to 17, suffered broken bones and other trauma. A freshman, Katherine Bonilla, and a sophomore, Dennis Nunez were listed in good condition yesterday in Children's Hospital. A sophomore, Natasha Nunez was in serious condition. Rosann Williams, a junior, was discharged Friday.

''We've had accident after accident after accident," said Tom Hopkins, assistant headmaster at West Roxbury High School. ''This is not the first time a kid has gotten hit. This is like a yearly or semi-yearly event. This is becoming an embarrassment."

Romney pushed to create the Department of Conservation in Recreation in 2003, to replace the Metropolitan District Commission and the Department of Environmental Management, which he said were inefficient. In September 2003, he chose Abbott as commissioner.

Yesterday, Eric Fehrnstrom, Romney's spokesman, said the governor stood by his decision to seek Abbott's resignation. Fehrnstrom dismissed the suggestion that the agency cannot do its job with its current budget. He also said money from the agency's budget had been used for last week's New England Patriots send-off party.

Fehrnstrom said the governor had toured unplowed roads in Cambridge with an agency worker and had told Abbott afterward to get them cleared.

''The Department of Conservation and Recreation has the resources it needs to do its job," Fehrnstrom said. ''Governor Romney insists on high standards of performance and accountability in government, particularly when public safety is involved . . . The Governor felt it was time to make a change in leadership.

Agency officials said the Department has 33 snowplows to clear 600 miles of roadway under its care. The agency owns 11 snowplows specifically dedicated to clearing sidewalks. In its annual report, staff had boasted that sharing snowplows between state and urban parkway divisions had saved $10,000 and ''also fostered team building for staff."

Abbot did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Sheehan's driving record includes a 1999 charge for operating under the influence. He lost his license for 45 days, and was put on probation after agreeing to take an alcohol educational course, said Erin Deveney, deputy registrar for the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles.

Sheehan also has had four accidents for which he was found to be at fault, and completed a driver's education course in 2000. He has had no accidents or citations since completing that course, until Friday's accident. Trooper Danielle Pires of the State Police said yesterday that no charges have been filed; an investigation continues.

Yesterday afternoon, portions of sidewalks near parkways under Department of Conservation and Recreation jurisdiction remained unplowed. While much of Morrissey Boulevard had been cleared, waist-high snowbanks blocked some curb cuts next to slushy sidewalks, making it impossible to walk without detouring into the road. Sidewalks along an overpass leading to the Arborway remained unplowed; so were portions of the sidewalks along the Jamaicaway.

An official at the Department of Conservation and Recreation, who asked not to be identified, said the department does not have a comprehensive inventory of every sidewalk it is responsible for plowing, and instead, often plows in response to residents' calls.

The department would need industrial-sized snow blowers to throw 8-foot-tall snow mounds far from the sidewalks; the mounds often form after department staff members plow the sidewalks, because contractors plowing private driveways push the snow back, blocking curb cuts, the official said. Crews from the Department of Conservation and Recreation and the Massachusetts Highway Department have been out since Friday clearing school zones and areas along department-owned roadways, including the VFW Parkway in West Roxbury, Morrissey Boulevard in Dorchester, Fresh Pond Parkway in Cambridge, and Charles River Road in Watertown. The department has asked for help in identifying locations around schools and hospitals that should be cleared immediately.

''The goal is to get as quickly as they can to school zones, churches and hospitals to make sure there's adequate safe passage," said Joe O'Keefe, spokesman for the Executive Office for Environmental Affairs, which oversees the Department of Conservation and Recreation.

The department will also meet with the MBTA tomorrow to discuss dropping off West Roxbury High students closer to the school.

Cars routinely travel at speeds approaching 50 miles per hour, Hopkins said. The school has asked for flashing lights and a school zone sign, he said.

Students, he said, should be more vigilant as they cross the street, and cross only in the marked crosswalk. But Hopkins said the four students who were struck had been unable to reach the crosswalk in front of the school's driveway without walking into the street.

Hopkins said the school had written a letter to the Department of Conservation and Recreation on Monday asking for the sidewalks near the school to be plowed. The department cleared half of the sidewalks, but not to the point where students could use the crosswalk, Hopkins said.

''The students really had no choice but to walk down the street," he said, because portions of sidewalk on both sides of the parkway had not been plowed.

Still, Hopkins said he had asked his secretary to call and thank the department after they started shoveling. After Friday's accident, Hopkins said a staff member from the department had called the school to ask administrators to express their thanks in an official letter. Hopkins refused.

''That's pretty blatantly insensitive, I would say. Everyone's just trying to cover their rear ends, I guess," Hopkins said.

Suzanne Smalley of the Globe Staff contributed to this report.