Snowplowing discussion continues

The discussion about improving snowplowing continued at the most recent Painesville City Council meeting.

After multiple residents complained about the city’s current snow-clearing efforts, City Manager Monica Irelan provided numerous options to deliver a faster or higher quality of service.

Council decided to proceed with reviewing options to achieve passable and safe roads in a more timely fashion.

Painesville Public Service Director Brian Belfiore explained that the city could get to the same level of service quicker with two 12- hour rotating shifts.

“There is a lot that goes into this,” he said. “It provides 24-7 coverage just as well and we will have more bodies on a shift at a time. We will still supplement the first shift with city personnel from other departments as we’re doing now, but during second and third shifts and on the weekends, we would have an additional crew on staff for those shifts. There’s a cost trade-off when you put additional personnel on offhours.”

After rotating staff for 12-hour shifts, there will be an accumulation of overtime carryover during the week, he added.

“If you have a large snow event like we did at the end of December, early January your total overtime increases drastically,” Belfiore said.

The data he presented showed that the cost for getting to the current level of service faster is about $11,000 more in overtime for a weeklong snow event. The current structure with overtime charges is about $6,368.

“Public services currently works three, eighthour shifts during the snow season, which is December through March,” Irelan previously said. “This allows for 24 hours a day, five days a week of snow and ice removal. On weekends, employees get paid eight hours of overtime per employee per shift that is worked.”

The city is responsible for maintaining 125 lane miles of roads, 41 culde-sacs, seven dead-end streets and nine city-owned parking lots during snow events. The current level of service is passable and safe, she said.

While there was much deliberation, no decision was made. The next council meeting will be at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 19 at City Hall in Municipal Courtroom #1.