Politics & Government

Bad Decisions, Not AWOL Workers Caused Snow Plow Issues

City received complaints about snow plowing work this week; manager says staff learned from bad decisions.

With a wintry mix of rain and snow forecast for this weekend, city public works officials are apologizing for complaints some residents lodged about last weekend's snow plowing.

Officials said some residents were concerned that city snow plow drivers had essentially walked off the job or called in sick in reaction to the proposed elimination of most collective bargaining rights for most public employees. That was not the case, City Public Works Director Tom Grisa said. He said snow plow problems that began Sun. Feb. 20 were instead caused by poor management decisions on the timing of plow efforts - mistakes he said his department will study for future improvement.

In case you missed this post on the city's web site from Grisa, here it is:

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"The has received many complaints based on the condition of our neighborhood streets, and we are doing everything we can to address the poor condition of these roads as soon as possible. The Department of Public Works continues to work to remove the ice and snow off the side streets and takes full responsibility for their poor condition. Department management made decisions to respond to the snow event on Sunday [Feb. 20] and into Monday that, in hindsight, we would do differently specific to timing of plowing operations. While some say hindsight is 20/20, it is also helpful to reflect on what happened. We will take every opportunity to learn from this and improve our process in the future.

"Some residents have associated the poor conditions of the roads with the events that have been occurring in Madison this past week, wondering if our union workers were in Madison instead of in the plow. We want to dispel any rumors. Every able-bodied Brookfield plow operator was at work performing their duties all week.

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"The snow/sleet/freezing rain mix that started on Sunday and continued all day Monday, coupled with the additional snow on Tuesday resulted in a hard pack of snow and ice that is frozen to the pavement. Despite repeated plow operations and salting operations, we have had difficulty removing this hard pack. In addition, the weather forecast for mid-30s and sun did not materialize, so the salt did not work as quickly as we hoped. Our crews have salted the roads again today and expect to remove the bulk of the remaining hard pack of snow and ice on Thursday (weather forecasted again in the 30s with sun).

"We apologize for any inconvenience and we appreciate your patience and understanding."


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