By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
The city of Hays can remove snow more quickly in residential areas, but Toby Dougherty, city manager, said, "we would probably have to double the size of our fleet, and then we'd have to add more personnel, and quite frankly, we just don't have the budget for that."
City employees and commissioners have received considerable criticism about how the snow removal was handled, particularly in residential areas, following last weekend's blizzard, which left between 9 and 10 inches of snow in Hays.
"In any snow event, but especially one like this, the immediate priority is the emergency snow routes," Dougherty said. "That means making sure emergency vehicles can get to every part of town, maybe not to every street, but to every part of town."
The second priority is streets around schools, although there is often a delay of a day or two.
"A storm like this really taxes our operation," he said.
In addition to streets, city workers are clearing around city facilities, including the Hays Regional Airport parking lot.
"Pretty much all available city staff that can be in a piece of (snow removal) equipment is out in that equipment."
Employees from the departments of public works, parks, water resources and the airport all come in to work around the clock.
Each storm is different. Dougherty said in his 20 years with the city, this is just the third time the decision was made to plow residential streets.
"With this significant storm on Sunday and then with the wind, it was Tuesday before we were done with the snow routes," Dougherty said. "And you have to make sure access on and off those routes is cleared. ... By that time, Wednesday rolled around.
"People were wondering why we weren't in residential streets yet. The short answer is, we don't have the resources."
Mayor Sandy Jacobs said there have also been many favorable public comments about the process.
"The naysayers seem to come to the top in most situations," she said. "But I had as many calls and emails, if not more, saying 'thanks for everything you do.'
"We had crews out there 24/7. We started on Saturday, and we were moving everything as fast as we could.
"We have a lot of equipment, but not every piece can do every job. Again, it comes down to resources. We can do anything our citizens are willing to pay for," the mayor said.
The city hired two local contractors to help haul off snow from the downtown streets and parking areas Monday night, but Dougherty said he's not inclined to hire contractors for other areas.
"There's probably not enough contractors with big enough equipment to have a coordinated effort to help when it comes to streets like this," he said.
"You have to be concerned about liability when they hit a parked car or cause an accident. At least I know my people are trained, and they're under my (the city's) liability insurance."
On Thursday, city crews were finally able to get into residential areas to plow without causing any damage.
"We have 8 to 9,000 driveways in Hays, and they're usually cleared (by residents) a couple of days after a storm, along with sidewalks," Dougherty said.
"If we go in two days after a storm, we're going to be pushing snow into driveways, and people are going to be unhappy with that. We also don't want to close in people's cars that have been parked along the side of the road with a three-foot windrow of snow.
"You really have to be careful of the unintended consequences of creating more of a problem."
Under the first phase of a winter storm traffic emergency declaration, residents must remove their vehicles from the emergency snow routes.
"I think our crews did a great job," Dougherty said.
"By and large, our residential streets were snow-packed until Thursday until they started getting a little slushy, and that's when we were able to get in and move it a little bit," he said.
Plowing of residential streets will continue, he said.
The winter storm traffic emergency declaration was lifted late Thursday afternoon.
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