Room to improve city snow removal

By the Journal Editorial Board | Wednesday, November 19, 2008

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Is the city getting the right streets cleared in the right order after a major blizzard? Can the city do a better job with snow removal?

Depends who you ask.

Rapid City Public Works Director Robert Ellis said (via e-mail) he has received comments both positive and negative concerning the city’s snow removal performance since last week’s blizzard.

“I understand that citizens have an expectation of their city especially when it comes to snow removal,” Ellis said. “We received a lot of favorable comments on the service we provided and we heard from those that are less than pleased, but I can say there has been more positive feedback than negative.”

We’re not surprised. City workers had their hands full with the heavy, wet snow and high winds and meeting everyone’s expectations would have been impossible. And yet, in light of the difficulties it seemed the city did a pretty good job getting snow off the streets and drivers back on them.

But there’s always room for improvement; Ellis doesn’t disagree.

Already, he said, public works had begun evaluating their successes and failures earlier this week. Long shifts by city workers and volunteers helping out made the general work manageable. Also helping with the effort was a heavy-duty snow plow. Another may be sought in the future, according to Ellis.

What didn’t work so well, however, was being able to fully utilize contractors with whom the city works. Ellis said some contractors had equipment on job sites and others just weren’t ready for the storm leaving them unable to assist the city with snow removal.

Realizing that situations like that will arise, Ellis said the city may be approaching the construction community to “get a stronger and faster  commitment from them in our efforts. This will likely cost the city more but in the end will get us a better result.”

We’re glad to see Ellis studying how his department handled the city snow removal and adjusting for future blizzards. Like we said, there’s always room for improvement.

Two particularly bothersome areas we saw were Main Street and St. Joseph Street. Those two main arteries were treacherous while other routes were cleared, leaving downtown area businesses and employees largely fending for themselves. Walls of snow blocked motorists approaching Mount Rushmore Road, and only one lane had grooves for vehicles to even consider passable — barely passable, and that’s if you had a vehicle with ground clearance. In each of the last two blizzards, downtown streets were not addressed by the city until the afternoon, long after most of those who had to get to work had battled the unplowed roads.

These are downtown streets, main east-west arteries for many people in the city. We ask the city to consider these roads as important as some of their other priorities — Omaha, Fifth, etc...

Ellis agreed the downtown streets continue to be ones the city struggles with and will be examining to see if there are more effective methods to get the job done.

Committing more of our hard earned tax dollars for snow removal isn’t a simple option, if it’s an option at all. The reality is no one wants to pay more each day for a service that we need only a handful of times each year.

But without spending more money, could snow removal be more efficient and done better to minimize traffic problems, fender benders and just plain inconveniences? We think so, and we’re glad the city is assessing the snow removal as a result of last week’s blizzard.

That reassessment, we hope, will lead to an easier commute for thousands of people who didn’t have the leisure of watching the snow fly from the comfort of their homes. Those are the people that can’t be forgotten — the ones who simply have to get from point A to point B, regardless of the weather conditions — making successful snow removal even more important.

Signs of last week’s blizzard have melted away. But our attention to the next one shouldn’t be lost.