Snow Problem: City Responds to Resident Complaints on Plowing

Dearborn residents’ attitudes toward the city’s snow removal efforts this season bring new meaning to the phrase “the winter of our discontent.”

With February’s inches of the white stuff looking to break some records and another storm underway Friday morning, it has been one heck of a snowy season for southeast Michigan. But the No. 1 issue worrying citizens of the Mitten isn’t how much, but how long it takes to get the snow removed from their streets.

The subject was broached at Dearborn City Council’s Feb. 7 meeting, during which Councilwoman Susan Sareini brought up complaints from residents that snow removal this year was sub-par in some areas of the city, including no snow removal from cul-de-sacs and plowing of some residential streets that left residents unable to park because of unplowed areas up to several feet away from the curbs.

Sareini said she had never heard complaints about the city’s snow removal services–until this winter.

According to Mark Pultorak, superintendent of the Highways and Parks division of the Department of Public Works, this winter has combined extraordinary snowfall both in the amount and the quickness of succession between storms.

For example, Pultorak said Thursday that the city was still clearing and salting the streets from the 8-10 inches of snow from the Feb. 20 blizzard–while preparing for Friday’s storm as well.

“The Storm of the Century (on Feb. 2 was not as bad as this one,” Pultorak said of Sunday’s snowfall. “This snow was heavy and my plows were having a hard time. We had a lot of breakdowns on the roads.

He admitted that Rotunda, Outer Drive, Michigan Avenue didn’t get plowed as quickly as they usually would, due mostly to truck breakdowns.

“It’s getting to be late in the season,” he added, “and the trucks have taken a beating.”

Still, Pultorak detailed that after Sunday’s storm, his crews were out for a 16-hour shift beginning at 3 a.m. Monday. Following was a midnight salting shift, and spot work the rest of the week.

“Tuesday we salted again,” he explained. “Wednesday we did some spot plowing, and (Friday) we’ll plow the entire city again.”

Though Pultorak knows his crew is accustomed to the never-ending work that comes with winter, he said they’re doing it with a staff that’s much smaller than in the past. While there used to be 40-50 staff members just in Highways and Parks, he says that number now represents the staff of the entire Public Works department.

Pultorak says DPW works together in times of need, but sometimes it’s just not enough to get the snow removed fast enough for residents’ liking.

“There have been reductions, but we draw from the water and sewer division to help us,” he explains. “I still have the same number of trucks, it’s just the bodies on the trucks.”

And overtime is costly, so the city tries to avoid it when possible.

“We have to watch what we do, because we have constraints,” Mayor Jack O’Reilly said in regard to plowing at the Feb. 7 City Council meeting. “I’ve approved overtime in the last week twice … but we have to use it very wisely.”

But one of the biggest barriers to effective plowing, as any resident of Dearborn knows, is cars parked in the streets.

When snowfall is heavy enough to require citywide plowing–three inches or more, according to Pultorak–a snow emergency is declared. For residents, this means one thing: get those cars off of the streets.

But although cars can be ticketed if they are left on the streets during a snow emergency, residents claim that many people ignore the rule.

“Plowing on our street is always quick. It is a mess when cars don't move,” commented resident Tracy Besek. “We have several residents on the street that just don't seem to care and park their cars in the street not mindful at all how it affects everyone else.

“It's inconsiderate when plowing needs to be done.”

Public Works Director James Murray explained at the Feb. 7 City Council meting that the failure of some residents to remove their cars from the street can hinder the department’s ability to plow properly.

“In this storm, there were a number of cars parked on the sides of the streets,” Murray said. “Plowing in the middle was the only way we could get down the street.”

Pultorak said that Mayor O’Reilly planned to authorize towing of cars that were parked on the street during the snow emergency than began 10 p.m. Thursday night.

The city would say only this about towing cars: “The bottom line is we need to keep our roads safe through effective snow plowing. Towing gives us another tool to meet that public safety goal.”

If a street legitimately needs more plowing or salting to make it drivable, Pultorak said that residents can call the DPW office at 313-943-2085 to request assistance. But if the lack of plowing is due to cars parked on the street, the neighborhood may be out of luck.

“We’ll go out and check it and … we’ll go back and fix it,” he said. “But if it’s due to a parked car, we may not be able to go back and clear that out.”