City Services Digs out from Major Snowstorm: Costs of Plowing Operations Still Being Determined

Tom Rogers breaks out the snow blower to clear his sidewalk.

Tom Rogers breaks out the snow blower to clear his sidewalk.

City Services Director Jay Marcotte said this week that he was pleased overall with the effort of his department during last week’s New Year’s snowstorm, and noted that the city had crews working for approximately 38 hours straight, to clear city streets.

“The guys did a great job, I was very pleased,” said Marcotte on Monday night  prior to the Inaugural Ceremonies. “We made some changes in our plowing operations and staggered the crews a bit more and it seems to have paid off.”

Marcotte also noted that City Services staff and the Mayor’s office both had received lots of positive feedback from residents, regarding the city’s snow plowing operations.

“We seemed to get a lot of positive feedback from areas that had been problem spots for the city in the past, so that was good,” he said.

According to the department, the city used 32 city vehicles and pieces of heavy equipment, and were supported by 16 commercial contract plows, giving the city a fleet of 48 plows throughout the storm.

As with all major snow removal and road salting operations, there will be a cost associated with the plowing, but Marcotte said the final cost cannot be estimated until all of the invoices from the contact plows have been received.

The city may got a break, because out of the 38 hours of plowing operations, at least 16 hours were during regular city services operating hours, which will help reduce the amount of overtime the city will have to pay workers for the storm cleanup.

Marcotte said that it would likely be a few weeks before the complete cost of the storm can be determined.

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