Spokane braces for busy snow-plowing season

Winter is coming, so grab a shovel. Or get someone else to keep your driveway free of snow.

Spokane Mayor David Condon laid out the city’s plan Monday to manage heavy snowfall and icy roads this winter. It includes two pilot programs to make plowing more efficient, and a plea to the community.

“Winter can be a tough time for some, so please reach out to your neighbors who might need some extra help with shoveling or other winter work,” Condon said.

The city has $750,000 budgeted for snow removal this year, and the street department has boosted staffing for the “official” snow season, which runs from Nov. 15 through March 15.

“City crews are prepared to keep our streets safe for drivers and pedestrians,” Condon said. “We have already started monitoring the weather 24 hours, seven days a week.”

Each year the city gets numerous complaints about snow berms blocking sidewalks and driveways. For the past two snow seasons, the city has experimented with specialized “gates” that prevent snow from building up alongside a plow’s route.

But those gates slow the process and make it more difficult to plow every route, Condon said.

“It can be used in some areas, not all throughout the city.”

“The whole city takes about four days to plow,” said Mark Serbousek, streets director. “And that’s if the storm comes in, and then the storm quits.”

Another program will use GPS to track city plows and monitor how much salt, sand and liquid de-icing compound is applied to streets. Condon said the program will help crews work more efficiently and monitor progress in real time.

“They talk to the radio room constantly, so you generally know where your plows are,” Condon said, “but you don’t know exactly.”

Spokane has 46 truck plows, 10 graders and contracts for an additional 10 graders during extreme snow storms. This year 16 vehicles will be outfitted with GPS.

In future years, the GPS data will be available online, so residents can see the location of a plow at any given time. It will be similar to the “Plow Tracker” app on the city of Chicago’s website, said Spokane city spokeswoman Julie Happy.

The program also will inform residents when a plow is “up” or “down” – that is, currently scraping snow.

“When a plow is up … a lot of people are wondering why a plow isn’t constantly down,” Condon said. “That’s because the drivers are going to a certain location, and they’re bypassing certain areas that other trucks have responsibility for.”

City code requires residents to clear snow from sidewalks, curb ramps, fire hydrants, storm drains, mail boxes and vehicles parked along streets. But Condon said the city – as always – will exercise some leniency in enforcing those rules. And he urged neighbors to help.

“This is a team effort.”