Huntsville city councilman proposes improvements for response to winter storms
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) – One Huntsville city councilman is calling for more communication among city leaders, first responders and public works for winter storm preparedness.
Recovery and clean-up efforts were called into question during Thursday’s city council meeting after last week’s winter storm shut the city of Huntsville down for days.
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“As we had our group meetings, I would send out something right afterwards just to tell people where we were and I’m not sure how much more we can do in that,” said Mayor Tommy Battle.
Now, District 5 Councilman John Meredith has proposed the city put together a winter weather task force.
“Which streets were gonna be treated first, where we are – that is the information I’m talking about,” said Meredith.
Meredith says the idea is that the task force would do regular briefings and daily pressers.
“In my mind, this task force should have briefings in the mornings, as well as the afternoon. If the situation is as drastic as what happened last week, there should be a daily presser that is made available for any of our citizens to see,” he said.
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The councilman says when people in his district called him during the winter storm, he didn’t have answers for them because he was not informed by city hall.
During the city’s only winter storm briefing, the mayor said the city did the best they could.
“Ice is something that – there is no plan that could fix ice – you have to work at it everyday,” said Mayor Battle.
Now, some people like Kith Gaston have said having those communication lines more open between the city and its residents during events like this wouldn’t hurt.
“I know that there was a time that I was looking at the sheriffs department Facebook page just to see what roads were open, where I could get anywhere. I could understand why it wasn’t in place considering where we live and how infrequent winter storms usually are, but it seems as though we’ve been getting one a year every year for the last few years,” Gaston said.
Councilman Meredith says he believes creating a winter weather task force will relieve stress on everyone during these events. He added that this task force could provide real time information on what the planned response will be and the status of that plan as it changes.
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