LEWISTON — Tight budgets will make it difficult for city road crews to keep up with long-lasting storms this winter, according to Public Works officials.
Positions eliminated in several city departments mean the road crews have a smaller supply of backup snowplow drivers, John Elie, operations manager for the Highway Department, said.
“What can the public expect this year?” Elie asked city councilors Tuesday. “To put it simply, there will be delays in residential neighborhoods and inner-city alleyways.”
The city has enough staff to use 22 pieces of snow-clearing equipment for the main “A Team” shift during the height of a storm.
Those crews work 16-hour shifts, operating everything from sidewalk plows to sand- and salt-dumping trucks and articulated loaders equipped with nose plows.
Once that first 16-hour shift is over, however, the city has only 10 employees to replace the A Team. That means 12 pieces of equipment must be parked — all four sidewalk plows, four of the big plows, two dump trucks and two road sanders.
Storms that dump heavy amounts of snow for longer than 16 hours could pose a problem.
“When we run out of ‘A’ drivers, that’s when the trucks get parked and that’s when the complaints come in,” Elie said. “‘Where is my sander? Where is my plow guy?’ There’s not a lot we can do about it.”
Elie said the bulk of the city’s B Team drivers come from other city maintenance positions, including building maintenance, water and sewer departments. Several of those positions were eliminated in last year’s budget cuts.
“So that means if there’s a water break at that point in the storm, we lose those guys as well,” Elie said.
City Administrator Ed Barrett said the city is trying to keep residents better informed during storms. Residents can sign up for text message and email alerts from the city to find out when parking is banned and when storms are expected.
“You saw at the end of last winter that we were being more aggressive about getting the word out on social media and Facebook — what the status of things are, where the plows are when we have trucks down for maintenance,” Barrett said. “We’re going to try and do more of that, but another way people can help is to just stay home when they don’t have to be out.”
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