Mayor, City Council want to better meet the needs of citizens
Marlene Feist, Director of Strategic Development, Public Works & Utilities, (509) 625-6505
Tuesday, April 11, 2017 at 2:43 p.m.
The City of Spokane is seeking feedback from citizens on how to improve its response when it snows. The Mayor, City Council, and Street Department plan to use that information to identify changes to better meet the needs of citizens during winter weather.
“Snow is part of life in the Inland Northwest, and we are taking a fresh look at how we can improve mobility for vehicles and pedestrians during inclement weather,” says Gary Kaesemeyer, the City’s Street Director. “We are reviewing best practices from other cities, evaluating our equipment, and considering staffing needs to refine our approach to address the citizens’ most important priorities.”
This past winter was the wettest on record and much of that precipitation fell as snow; the City completed three full-City plows to respond to those conditions. Throughout the season, citizens relayed concerns about how the City manages snow on streets and sidewalks. Concerns ranged from dissatisfaction with the berms deposited at the end of driveways to how long it takes to complete a full-City plow to a lack of compliance with requirements to remove snow from sidewalks.
The City has compiled the citizen concerns and is asking citizens to define how important each one is to them as part of an online survey. The survey will be available for the next two weeks, until Tuesday, April 25, and the results will help define which changes will be prioritized for implementation next winter.
