Time to Haul Away the Madison Snow and Pay the Piper

The hope of Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz to avoid the major cost of dealing with the snow came to a tumultuous end today with the third heavy snowstorm in ten days. The public safety issues and the economic impact of the impassable streets must be addressed.

We know that the city was hoping to carry over $4.5 million from 2007 to 2008 in order to balance next year's operating budget. Well. it is just not going to happen. The budget has taken a hit for three major plowings and one minimal clean up.

Now the city must do an additional city wide clean up and follow that with a major effort downtown. That is going to involve going street by street, removing all vehicles, plowing from curb to curb and then removing most of the snow.   

The problem is compounded with the unrealistic expectation that the city could not only ignore purchasing new plowing equipment, but that it could reduce the number of available vehicles for plowing. No additional equipment was added in the last seven years. That occurred when the city installed the new cart collection equipment. The old trucks could handle a plow blade; the new trucks are too delicate and sensitive to plow.

That raises another interesting point: take a look at Gilman Street. Even if the garbage trucks could get though, there is no place for the residents to place their carts.

The hit may be upwards of $1.2 million. City leaders have all of next year to figure out how to solve the fiscal crunch. Now is the time to face the reality of these successive storms.

Update 9:16 am: This from the morning Wisconsin State Journal: Snow removal budget is out the window

Streets Division spokesman George Dreckmann...said, Madison's snow-removal crews will have gone through the additional $625,000 the City Council approved a week ago to cover costs from cleanup efforts earlier this year and this month — and then some.

Each storm costs the city about $300,000, Dreckmann said.

Did you ever wonder why more often than not, it is spokesman who always speaks for the city and not the mayor?

Comments

[Kate M.]

I think that there is a certainly amount of unfair criticism being directed towards the streets department in Madison. 1. Madison's streets will never be as good as the "surrounding communities" because the streets in Madison have many cars parked on the streets, more intersections, narrower streets, and more traffic. Sure you can plow great in Fitchburg because there the neighborhoods are dissimilar to Madison's. 2. Mother Nature sometimes wins. The Dec 1 snowstorm was a very complicated storm. You can't plow ice. 3. It's winter. I read some of the complaints and can infer that some people are mad because they can't drive the same speed on the roads as they can when it's dry. Guess what? Same is true if it's been raining really hard. 4. How would you like to work for 11 straight days, 12 hours per day? 5. No two things can occupy the same space at the same time. Just like when you put a boat in Lake Mendota the water gets dispersed, so does the snow when it gets plowed from the streets to the driveways. The alternative is have the streets unplowed and residents having nowhere to go from their own fresh driveways. 6. People need to move their cars.

And no, I don't work for Madison streets, or even City of Madison.
I would recommend a few things (if they are not done already). How about running 24 hour shifts for street staff operations November 1 - April 1. That way the plowing overnight will not be done on overtime (or less overtime, depending on the nature of the storm), reducing personnel costs. I think the bill floating around to allow longer free parking in the ramps for snowstorms is a good idea. Couple that with increased fines for not moving cars should encourage more people to park in them while they can.

[Captain Morgan]

I'll put a plow on my bike just for you, Paul.

[Student]

In all of my time at UW-Madison I cannot think of one thing that Mayor Dave has done correct. From his ploy to install cameras on State Street and move to end Hallow's Eve, to his inability to understand the alder district on campus (and play shoddy endorsement politics) while failing to bring recycling to Langdon street (although he'll walk hand in hand with the Langdon St. Night Patrol), this is the last straw. I cannot make it home at night without falling on my ass. I cannot park my car on the street I live on. I cannot ride my bike down University Avenue. Every morning I wake to sigh at what an inconvenience my day is going to be as I trudge through the unkempt streets of Madison. Living in HIGH ASS rent district in one of the most progressive (ranked best to live cities in the F***** nation) I would hope my feet wouldn't get wet on my way to class. Mayor Dave please do something. Crawl out of your hole and be a mayor with a Capital M. I hope Soglin becomes Chancellor. I hope he will look out from over Bascom Hill one day and declare a war with with the city of Madison. That the snow will be first, but next will be those atrocious Halloween lights, next wrapped city buses that have alcohol adds. Not to digress, but I cannot stand the irony, the hypocrisy when I get on a city bus wrapped in a Miller High Life add as my mayor attacks the downtown bars with a frivolous density plan that will only push students deeper into the dangerous basements of house parties, when the city moans incessantly about the binge drinkers that are defacing the city on a hill (built in an old swamp). I am angry. I am angry that my feet are wet now as I type this. I am angry that I have finals. However, I am most angry that Mayor Dave will not get the snow off of the streets. It's time to drink heavily, drink that case of Miller High Life that the public transportation told me to by and rip the walls out of my slummy apartment that the landlord will overcharge me for without documentation. I'm mad. I'm mad. I'm mad ... a little Arlo Guthrie for ya'll.

[Student]

In all of my time at UW-Madison I cannot think of one thing that Mayor Dave has done correct. From his ploy to install cameras on State Street and move to end Hallow's Eve, to his inability to understand the alder district on campus (and play shoddy endorsement politics) while failing to bring recycling to Langdon street (although he'll walk hand in hand with the Langdon St. Night Patrol), this is the last straw. I cannot make it home at night without falling on my ass. I cannot park my car on the street I live on. I cannot ride my bike down University Avenue. Every morning I wake to sigh at what an inconvenience my day is going to be as I trudge through the unkempt streets of Madison. Living in HIGH ASS rent district in one of the most progressive (ranked best to live cities in the F***** nation) I would hope my feet wouldn't get wet on my way to class. Mayor Dave please do something. Crawl out of your hole and be a mayor with a Capital M. I hope Soglin becomes Chancellor. I hope he will look out from over Bascom Hill one day and declare a war with with the city of Madison. That the snow will be first, but next will be those atrocious Halloween lights, next wrapped city buses that have alcohol adds. Not to digress, but I cannot stand the irony, the hypocrisy when I get on a city bus wrapped in a Miller High Life add as my mayor attacks the downtown bars with a frivolous density plan that will only push students deeper into the dangerous basements of house parties, when the city moans incessantly about the binge drinkers that are defacing the city on a hill (built in an old swamp). I am angry. I am angry that my feet are wet now as I type this. I am angry that I have finals. However, I am most angry that Mayor Dave will not get the snow off of the streets. It's time to drink heavily, drink that case of Miller High Life that the public transportation told me to by and rip the walls out of my slummy apartment that the landlord will overcharge me for without documentation. I'm mad. I'm mad. I'm mad ... a little Arlo Guthrie for ya'll.

[Marius]

Good going, student! A diatribe so nice that you posted it twice.
Well, your rage is well-directed.

Mayor Dick may not be quite the unmitigated disaster that George W. has proven himself to be,
but more and more residents are coming to recognize, "nice guy" act notwithstanding, what an arrogant, vindictive, incompetent phony he is. Of course, we can't blame him for the snow, only for a total lack of leadership in dealing with it (and most other matters.) His ineptitude is not confined to Langdon Street and the campus. From personnel to transportation to crime and throughout the city he's an equal-opportunity screw-up.

[rag]

I recall Harvey Dueholm's sage comment of the rich and the poor will both have ice but the poor only get it in winter.

The Mad City version: The poor and the rich will both have snow and ice removal but the poor only get it in summer!

[rdking]

maybe mayor dave should take heed of what happened to mayor bilandic in chicago in the late 70's when he couldn't get the snow cleared. Of all the places ive lived madison has by far the worst snow removal. for the extremely high property taxes we pay we deserve better BASIC city services