City’s budget cuts to trash snow removal

Snow and trash will sit on the street longer this winter after budget cuts slashed hundreds of jobs at the Sanitation Department, officials said Thursday.

The reduced workforce will require more time to plow the city’s streets and sidewalks during a snowstorm — which in turn could delay trash pickups, Acting Sanitation Commissioner Edward Grayson said at a City Council oversight hearing.

Sanitation lost 397 snow removal workers when the Council and Mayor de Blasio were forced to trim fat over the summer after the pandemic decimated tax revenues.

At this time last year the city employed 6,732 people for snow operations. Now there are just 6,335 — a 6% reduction — a Sanitation Department spokesman said.

“Snow operations will go longer than your constituents have seen in the past, and therefore we may have [trash] collection delays,” said Grayson. “Our head count is lower. We’re going in with about 400 less.”

Snowplow truck drivers work in 12-hour shifts when snow hits, either plowing streets or blanketing them with salt in advance of a storm. Grayson said a heavy snowfall would require one or two extra shifts of work to clear the streets — meaning some areas of the city could be unsafe for more than a day if a blizzard hits this winter.

Garbage collectors cannot wrangle trash from city streets and sidewalks until they’re cleared of snow.

Delays in plowing and trash collection could leave frozen garbage on sidewalks for days if a major snowstorm hits — and could also gum up the outdoor restaurant seating that has popped up in street parking spaces during the pandemic, Grayson said.

Restaurant owners will need to clear diners from street and sidewalk tables when streets are being plowed.