Tag Archives: snow plan

City of Peoria, Weather

The cost of removing snow

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Last week, the City of Peoria issued this press release:

“The City of Peoria incurred expenses of $554,671 in combating and managing the 15″ snow storm and blizzard conditions of February 1 and 2, 2011. Clean-up continued throughout the balance of the week. The majority of expenses, $541,000, were incurred by the Public Works Department, and included payment of $192,000 to private contractors to manage and remove snow in a timely and safe manner. The Illinois Emergency Management Administration will be reviewing these expenses to determine the level of reimbursement to the City.

As a matter of interest, we note that the combination of severe ice and sleet storm of 2-3 inches on November 30, 2006, coupled with the following 13” inches of snow and rapidly dropping temperatures on December 1, onward resulted in total expenses of $290,329. Public Works expenses were $274,000 (numbers rounded).

Public Works Department’s redesigned snow routes and increased pre-event planning, plus the use of private contractors during the February 1 blizzard, resulted in quicker response and clean-up compared to the 2006 storm. However, these two storms were much different from one another in terms of the 2006 pre-snow ice build-up and then dramatic temperature drop.

The Journal Star ran an article with some additional cost breakdowns.

This seems like a good time to remind everyone how city planning and development have contributed to these high costs. A 2007 Six Sigma project report found that “The community has grown over 26 center lane miles in the past seven years [2000-2007] and will be growing another ten center lane miles later this year due to new neighborhoods being developed,” but that, “No consideration has been given for equipment or manpower needed to clear the streets.” In other words, as the City has grown in land mass, not enough attention has been given to the cost of providing City services to these new areas. When the City annexes land or builds new roads, you never hear any discussion about the costs of maintaining and clearing them, or the cost of providing additional police and fire protection.

After the report came out, the City initially increased the number of snow routes from 25 to 26. But due to budget cuts in 2009, the number of snow routes was cut back to 23, and there were some layoffs. According to a 12/11/2009 article in the Journal Star, “The route reductions and job cuts resulted in $222,500 in savings.” One wonders what the net savings have been this winter, given the cost of hiring private contractors, renting additional equipment, and paying overtime to the City’s plow drivers.

City of Peoria

New snow plan reduces routes to pre-2007 levels

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Flashback: December 1, 2006. A major snowstorm hit Peoria and crippled the city for days.

carburiedinsnowpeoria
Picture courtesy of weatherphotography.net.

The next month, the city was “investigating ways to improve their current snow-removing plan.” They decided to collaborate with Caterpillar and a Commercial Snow Removal Naperville service to make their improvement efforts a Six Sigma project. The results of that project were contained in a report published in June 2007. There were many suggestions for improvement, but one of the big ones was this (emphasis added):

The team understands that more snow routes should be added due to city growth of over 26 center lane miles within the past few years. The City Street Department will be looking at this over Spring/Summer 2007 and will institute better action plans with these routes and possibly develop routes within routes to even out the growth of those zones. The city currently has 25 snow routes and more routes will be added at a later date…. The community has grown over 26 center lane miles in the past seven years and will be growing another ten center lane miles later this year due to new neighborhoods being developed. No consideration has been given for equipment or manpower needed to clear the streets.

So, in 2007 we had 25 snow routes, and this was clearly seen as inadequate given the physical size of Peoria. Fast-forward to July 2008: the Public Works Department is proposing a new snow plan that incorporates many of the suggestions from the Six Sigma report, including this: “Due to growth, the number of snow routes needs to be increased to add one additional route.” That was approved in August, so we now have 26 snow routes.

And that brings us to next Tuesday’s City Council meeting, where the Public Works Department will be proposing yet another new snow plan. On the precipice of the winter season, we are presented with this (emphasis added):

The changes in the Plan for 2009-2010 include a change in the number of Snow Routes that will be covered based on proposed adjustments in staffing levels for 2010. In 2008-09 we included 26 Snow Routes and 5 Hill Routes. For 2009-10 the Plan includes 23 Snow Routes and 4 Hill Routes. The three Snow Routes eliminated were each split into the three adjacent routes. While this will increase our response time, we do not think the public will see much change in our response, during most events. We also still hope to complete our response to most events within about 18 hours after the end of the snow event.

Keep in mind, Peoria hasn’t gotten any smaller or removed any streets between August 2008 and October 2009. Yet we’re supposed to believe that they can go from 26 snow routes to 23 — 23!! — and we’re not going to “see much change” in response time? Imagine if this had been presented right after the snow storm in 2006. “In response to the city being shut down for over a week due to snow, we’re proposing that we remove two snow routes.” I don’t think that would have flown, do you?

But even aside from the really large snow events which are admittedly infrequent, the Six Sigma report made it clear that more snow routes were needed to provide adequate service levels — even for routine snow events — because of the growth of the city. Now either the Six Sigma report woefully overestimated our snow route needs by three routes, or Public Works is giving us a snow job now.

We all know the truth: the city council is cutting staffing, so there aren’t enough drivers anymore to sustain 26 routes. Thus, Public Works is putting unconvincing optimism into its report on how it will meet the council’s high demands for snow removal with fewer routes than we had in 2007. Fortunately, though, we’ll have a new Marriott hotel, and museum, and new landscaping on the Jefferson Street side of the Civic Center (to the tune of $600,000+), so who needs adequate snow removal, right?

The next question is, which routes will be cut? Where will the decreases in service levels hit the hardest?

  • They’re eliminating route #4 and incorporating it into adjacent routes 3 and 5. That means the near north side will see a decrease in service.
  • They’re eliminating route #10 and incorporating it into routes 9 and 11. That means pretty much the whole East Bluff will see a decrease in service, as well as the west side of Knoxville between Nebraska and War Memorial.
  • They’re eliminating route #18 and incorporating it into routes 17, 19, and 20. Route 17 is picking up the majority of route 18. That will affect most neighborhoods north of Glen Avenue, south of Pioneer Parkway, and east of University.

All the other routes will stay the same. I can’t wait to hear the justification for making most of the cuts in high-density neighborhoods while maintaining service levels to low-density areas in the far-flung north and west regions of the city.

Pray for a mild winter.