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The Syracuse City Department of Public Works’ Snow and Ice Department begins preparation for the winter in August. Now, during mid-December in one of the United States’ snowiest cities, the department is putting plans into action and snowplows on the streets.

The Snow and Ice Department, which in 2018 Jeremy Robinson began to oversee when he became the Commissioner of Public Works, at the time employed snowplows up to 22 years old. Coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic and now with a new fleet of snowplows, Robinson explained the department’s methods of operation and preparation for the winter months amid an employee shortage.

“The drivers are premium. They don’t just fall off trees now,” Robinson said. “We have the equipment now — now we just need the bodies.”

During its summer preparations for the snow season, Robinson said the department trained around 15 new drivers to join the 80 workers across the department’s three units – street cleaning, repair and sewers — who prepare and run snow plows, as well as take care of salting roads.

After department workers washed and rust-proofed plows throughout the month of August, crews began to prepare salts to use on roads in mid-October. Arthur George, a plow crew member, said that as the season begins, it’s essential that crew members ensure all equipment is ready each and every time they take out a plow.

Snowplow crews, overseen by two superintendents and four to five crew leaders, mainly clear snow at night when streets are free of traffic, Robinson said. Doran Jones, also a plow crew member, emphasized the importance of where plowers start in addition to when they do.

The department assigns priority routes to each crew member, Jones said, including routes to essential destinations like hospitals, schools and police and fire departments, in order to ensure that major roads for work commutes and emergency services are clear.

Jones said he feels responsibility in his capacity with the Snow and Ice Department because crew members are tasked with ensuring that emergency personnel are able to do their jobs. For Robinson, sticking to priority routes is essential in ensuring the community’s safety.

“If someone’s sick, they’ve got to get to the hospital. Kids got to get to school, and hills need to be dealt with because there’s accidents (at) main intersections like West Street and Genesee,” Robinson said.

When snowstorms become too severe for the department to handle fully in a timely manner, Robinson also said sticking to priority routes is the best way to ensure their plowing has the greatest effect. When priority goes to major thoroughfares and essential routes, though, Robinson said community members have struggled and had complaints about unplowed neighborhoods.

“Residents, rightfully so, they have a gripe with us and our plans. But that’s the way we have to do it. We have to go by priority,” Robinson said.

George added that another reason the department isn’t able to plow certain streets and later receives complaints is because residents illegally park cars on neighborhood streets.

With the outlined goal of getting a plow on every street within 24 hours of the last snowflake this year, Robinson hopes the department will be able to improve its operations as a whole.

“With the constraints that we had in the past, it was tough to get to every street in a timely manner,” Robinson said. “Obviously, there’s always room for improvement. A lot of people think we can get better. I think we can too.”

Published on December 12, 2022 at 9:25 pm

Contact Isabel: iamelend@syr.edu