To: Honorable Mayor and Members of Town Council
From: Eric Lee, Street Operations & Maintenance Manager
Title
Update: Snowplowing and Ice Control Policy
Body
________________________________________________________________________________
Executive Summary
The Snowplowing and Ice Control Policy was adopted by Town Council in November 2008. The primary goal of the policy is to provide snow and ice control services to all Town owned public streets in an effort to facilitate emergency service access and vehicular movement throughout the community. The purpose of this item is to review the major points of the current policy to understand if policy goals are still appropriate.
Plowing streets and applying ice control agents supports the Town goal of maintaining safe, functional and accessible infrastructure in a proactive manner. In the days following a snow event when freeze-thaw cycles warrant, ice abatement techniques are used to crush and plow ice as needed for safety.
The following graphic shows the general policy thresholds utilized to determine when snowplowing operations are commenced. The scale on the left is forecasted snow accumulation in inches.
Secondary streets (Priorities 3 and 4) may or may not be plowed when snow and ice control operations are initiated for primary streets. The criteria to initiate snowplowing on secondary streets involve a determination of whether the streets will be passable for vehicles based on the existing storm event. The Department’s goal is to complete this within eight (8) hours after snowfall has ceased. Temperatures and time of year will also be considered. No more snow will be plowed than is necessary to maintain two-way traffic.
A team of more than 70 staff from the Public Works, Water, Parks & Recreation, and Development Services departments are trained each year to respond to storm events. This additional staff allows for multiple shifts in the case of a blizzard or when “around-the-clock” operations are implemented. Approximately 19 Town staff will be used for a “typical” storm event.
Budget Impact
All items inclusive to snow plowing operations are included in the Public Works Department budget to maintain current levels of service (8-hours, 90% of time).
Staff Recommendation
According to the latest community survey data, the current policy is meeting the needs of the community in an efficient and cost effective manner. Public Works staff is recommending that the current policy remain in effect.
Proposed Motion
This agenda item is for information and feedback purposes only.
Attachments
Staff Report
Attachment A: Snowplowing and Ice Control Policy