It’s been nearly two weeks since a winter storm dumped at least 10 inches of snow across the St. Louis region, but while city officials say they’re doing all they can to address the lingering ice on residential and side streets, they did not give a timeline for when all roads would be clear.
More than 100 community members attended a Public Infrastructure and Utilities Committee meeting Wednesday either virtually or in person at City Hall. Several city residents and members of the Board of Aldermen called out the city for neglecting to salt or plow their streets and for delays in trash pickup. Others were concerned about the safety risks posed by the ice.
Sarah Lyon-Schmidt of the Grand Center Arts District said she takes the bus every week to the Siteman Cancer Center for treatment. A few of her neighbors with disabilities take the same bus, she said.
“Today (Wednesday), both on my trip to Siteman and back as people were exiting the bus, they fell and got hurt,” Lyon-Schmidt said. “And that’s because (in) the areas in front of the bus stops, the snow has been plowed over to block them, and people certainly can’t get through with mobility devices, but also, you’re climbing over three feet of snow where it’s been plowed in order to try to reach the bus, and it’s causing a lot of safety problems for plenty of people.”
St. Louis has 4,230 lane miles, and 1,920 of them are on snow routes, according to the Street Department. And there are 52 routes and 100 bridges currently being serviced, said Director of Streets Betherny Williams.
Fifty plow trucks and 53 employees have been working to salt roads and plow the streets, Williams said. The crews worked 12-hour shifts immediately after the storm but are now back to eight-hour shifts.
“We will continue to work until we can make sure that all roads are passable,” Williams said. “Because of the mild winters we’ve seen over the last two to three years, we had enough salt that we could operate this winter season. ... Those funds were appropriated to other (areas) within the street maintenance budget."
The city began this winter season with 16,000 tons of salt.
Mayor Tishaura Jones and other officials said residents should see smaller trucks from several city divisions out this week salting side streets to help move things along.
“If we can find more trucks to help us out, we’ll bring them in,” she said.
Williams said they’re hoping the combination of the sun, continued salting of streets and cars on the roads will help the remaining snow and ice to melt in the coming days. Temperatures are expected to drop next week, however.
Addressing concerns and clarifying policy
The city’s snow route priorities include arterial roads like Kingshighway, Goodfellow Boulevard, Grand Avenue and Broadway. The second priority includes secondary routes mainly located in neighborhoods. The third priority includes hill routes, which are streets on an incline or slope, Williams explained Wednesday.
She said the city has historically not plowed residential and side streets due to the number of cars parked on the streets and the size of the plow trucks.
“In this storm, we took the opportunity to work with (the city’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Forestry), and they have allowed us to utilize their staff and their fleet to go down some of these smaller streets, as well as help us open up some alleyways and ramps.
“That’s all a part of the larger plan of what we’re attempting to do here in the city of St. Louis,” Williams said.
For some, the plan isn’t robust enough.
Alderman Bret Narayan of the 4th Ward on Wednesday said he's received phone calls and emails from people saying, "I don’t know what I’m going to do” about their groceries or medicine. “We’re talking about 10 days," he said. "This is just an absolute failure.”
Narayan hammered the city for failing to address hill routes in the 4th Ward. He said he lives on one and hasn’t been able to leave his house since the storm.
“The 4th Ward has more hill routes in it than I think the rest of the city combined, and the fact of the matter is, the city just did not do a good job on these hill routes," Narayan said. "It continues to fail the residents on this. It’s killing businesses right now. … I’ve heard from some residents that they’ve finally seen a truck come through, eight to 10 days after the storm.”
6th Ward Alderwoman Daniela Velazquez asked the Street Department for a more aggressive plan to attack icy streets.
“I’ve got a couple in my ward where they’ve got an ice skating rink, and it’s funny but not funny,” Velazquez said. “I think that’s everybody’s frustration is that if it’s not clear in a few days, we’re going to be spending the next week walking on ice.”
Williams said on Wednesday that despite popular belief, sidewalks are not the city’s responsibility. They're for business and residential owners to handle.
“But we will work with businesses and city buildings to provide any help or assistance we can give,” she added.
Another piece of misinformation Williams addressed is that streets with speed humps can’t be plowed. According to Williams, streets with speed humps can be plowed — drivers simply pay attention to the street signs to ensure they don’t hit the humps.
Williams said they’ve also been partnering with schools to help them clear snow and ice. Most schools are located near or on a snow route, she said, and a limited number of schools are not. Those schools are responsible for snow removal, along with schools that use entrances located on side streets.
Erica Threnn of McKinley Heights said Wednesday she has seen several children standing on icy streets waiting for the bus.
“I wish we could focus some of our energy on clearing sidewalks along some of the snow routes, the bigger streets like Jefferson. … I saw people (Wednesday morning) standing on a sheet of ice on Jefferson waiting for the bus, and a lot of bus riders are already disenfranchised and at a disadvantage.”
She noted that several businesses including grocery stores are not clearing the ice from around their building and suggested the city partner with local businesses to get the ice removed.
Delayed trash pickup
In the past two weeks, refuse workers only completed 50% of their routes due to the snow and ice, leaving some residential areas with overflowing dumpsters and trash sitting at the curb.
According to their union contract, city refuse truck drivers are not required to go out in the field if more than six inches of snow has accumulated, or if the temperature is lower than 10 degrees.
“The routes that we were not able to collect, we spent time on Saturday putting our salt trucks down the alleys to try and break up the snow so the routes can be passable to collect the trash,” Williams said.
She said the department will continue to work on salting all roads, especially the neglected side streets, but didn’t give a timeline.
Trash collection will fully resume as conditions improve, she said.
Williams acknowledged that some ordinances surrounding snow removal need to be updated, as well as street signage and snow routes.
City residents are encouraged to contact the Citizens’ Service Bureau at 314-622-4800 or online to submit requests for street treatment. Jones asked residents to park off the street or as close to the curb as possible to make room for salt trucks.
