The City of St. Louis has admitted that it waited too long to change its response to a winter storm that hit earlier this month.
“This was an atypical storm, and we know it took us too long to move away from the typical response,” Conner Kerrigan, the mayor’s director of communications, said in a statement on Friday. "While historically the City of St. Louis has not treated residential streets, I want to acknowledge that we have heard residents loud and clear that they would like to see the policy changed on how we handle this type of precipitation on residential streets going forward.”
Kerrigan said the mayor was already working with members of the Board of Aldermen to make needed changes to the city’s ordinances. The city has also signed contracts with two local companies to help plow and salt side streets.
The storm Jan. 5-6 dropped at least 10 inches of snow and sleet in the region, followed by another round of snow on Jan. 10. Some side streets in the city were still solid blocks of ice almost two weeks later.
While the high temperature on Friday was in the mid-50s, bitter cold will move in again over the weekend.
