Akron service director calls foot-deep snow cleanup 'excellent' despite challenges, delays

Akron's Director of Public Service Chris Ludle on Monday lauded his department's effectiveness in cleaning up after last week's snowstorm, which he called the largest to hit the county in 25 years.

He also acknowledged problem that city crews faced amid a snow removal effort that left some residents blockaded in their homes by at least a foot of snow for up to three days. The difficulties led many residents to post criticism of the city's efforts on social media and reach out to the Beacon Journal with their complaints.

In a Monday presentation to Akron City Council's Public Service Committee, Ludle described his team's pre-treatment and cleanup response to last week's Sunday night storm that rolled through Monday morning, dumping more than a foot of snow on Akron roads by Jan. 17. He also discussed ways to make the process run more smoothly in the future.

City's timeline of its cleanup

Prior to the storm, the city deployed all 52 of its trucks and full crews to pre-treat every Akron street with brine and salt, which are methods to prevent snow or ice from bonding to the road surface.

Despite heavy snowfall that continued throughout the morning of Jan. 17, totaling 12 to 16 inches, crews were plowing all first-priority streets, which include expressways, highly trafficked roads and roads that serve hospitals, schools and hills. About 1,000 of Akron's 1,900 lane miles are included in that first group. The city also reached out to contractors who helped to move snow piles on Monday.

By Tuesday morning, crews were making their way through third-priority streets, which are primarily residential roads. By noon, they had cleared about half of all third-priority streets. The city said the pre-treatment process worked well — so when plows came through, streets were effectively cleared.

By Wednesday afternoon, the city said all streets were "open and passable."

"All in all, I think our employees did an excellent job," Ludle said.

Many residents, however, were critical of the amount of time it took for plows to reach their roads, leaving hundreds of comments on the mayor's office Facebook page to alert of unplowed streets or express frustration over the disruption. In some cases, residents were snowed in for three days and were forced to miss work or doctor's appointments.

"This is very frustrating to see your [sic] doing second passes when some streets haven’t been touched," one Firestone Park resident Tonya Truss commented on a Facebook post updating plowing progress on Jan. 18. "You don’t forget to collect my taxes. I can’t get out to get to work."

"My section of Evergreen in Firestone Park hasn’t been touched," wrote another commenter, Lucy Joy, on Jan. 18. "A city plow drove down the street at about 2pm with the plow UP and wasn’t laying salt. I know they are working hard out there and it not their fault, but this is frustrating and unacceptable."

Newer plow drivers 'are going to get better'

Despite an overall positive review, Ludle cited several issues in last week's plowing efforts. Many of the drivers, he said, didn't have much experience operating a plow and had to do so in a significant amount of snow.

"We had a lot of new drivers, and they're learning," he said. "We're going to get better."

Additionally, certain COVID-19 safety protocols prolonged shift change processes, Ludle said, which requires the previous driver to sanitize the truck and the incoming driver to do the same.

City Council members applauded Ludle's department's efforts to clear the roads in a timely manner, nonetheless, contrasting it to a January 2019 storm that similarly brought a foot of snow to the region. The city later issued an apology over its cleanup efforts after stranding ambulances, school buses, residents trying to get to work and patients trying to make it to appointments.

"I thought the way in which it was handled showed a lot of improvement from 2019," said Ward 8 Council Member Shammas Malik. "I heard that from residents. I thought with the immense amount of snowfall, we were getting to these streets quickly."

In response to that storm, the mayor rolled out a five-point plan in October 2019 to address future snow clearing, promising more trucks and an online system to let residents know when their streets will be cleared.

Neither have happened yet.

Ludle told council that because of complications with the supply-chain and COVID-19, the city was unable to secure the 17 new trucks. He said those vehicles would likely not come until 2023.

An online portal that would allow citizens to check in on plowing progress and see when their street would be cleared is also in the works, but Ludle did not say when that was anticipated to be up and running.

A parking ban was in place for four days, but Ludle said crews faced challenges with people violating the order and leaving their cars on the street. Ludle estimated there were at least 1,000 parked cars — about 100 per ward — blocking streets despite the ban. Due to the volume of snow, he said there was "no way we could've towed" those cars; instead, he thanked residents who moved their vehicles to accommodate snowplows.

Future improvements

Ludle said in addition to a website for residents to monitor progress and more trucks coming next year, he hopes to improve communication with the public.

The mayor's 311 call center was "overwhelmed" with more than 6,000 requests related to the storm, according to the city, which forced phone lines to pause at a certain point on Monday so staff could catch up on calls.

The storm also fell on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a city holiday, which meant a smaller number of staffers was available to respond to those calls.

Residents were also prompted to submit 311 requests online for certain roads to be prioritized, but because every road was scheduled to be plowed anyway, that caused some confusion. Many residents submitted multiple requests and were upset that their street still hadn't been cleared yet.

"I think where we got into some frustration with residents is when we were 24 to 36 hours out from the snow stopping, folks had put in an online request or several or had called and thought that would move them up in the line," Malik said. "I definitely do encourage for the future once we’ve decided to plow every street, I think it’s prudent to let folks know that and not give them the option to think they’re cutting the line or changing expectations."

Throughout Ludle's Monday presentation, more snow continued to fall for a second consecutive day.

Despite it only bringing 3 to 4 inches, he said crews were out Monday treating every Akron road due to low temperatures that dipped into single digits overnight. The typical threshold to treat or plow every road is between 5 to 6 inches, he said. No contractors were called to help for the snowfall on Jan. 23 and 24.

"We say [the Jan. 17] event was the biggest one in 25 years, but we all know it could happen again next week," Ludle told council. "We know it’s not going to be another 25 years. ... There's some things we're looking at to do, and we're going to get better."

Reporter Abbey Marshall is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms. Learn more at reportforamerica.org. Contact her at at amarshall1@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Akron service director pleased with snowstorm cleanup despite issues