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City Officials Stress Teamwork to Keep Roads and Sidewalks Clear During and After Snowstorm

Chris Bolt
/
WAER News

Central New York is preparing for some significant snowfall Wednesday, and the City of Syracuse is asking those who live and work in the city to do their part to keep roads and sidewalks clear.  About 4 to 8 inches of snow is expected to fall between late Wednesday morning into the evening.  Director of Operations Corey Driscoll Dunham says the plows need space to do their work.

Priority areas remain in effect, mainly the narrow streets with 25 percent or more of two and three family houses on one block.  Illegally parked cars can really limit plow access to streets.  Our DPW is working hard, but we know as a city this is a work in progress."  

She says a list of priority parking enforcement areas is available on the city’s website syrgov.net.  Police will be ticketing and towing parking violators, including those who don’t follow the odd-even parking regulations.

“When you live on a street that has alternate side parking, we really need people to abide by that.  It provides a more open roadway for the plows to get by.  We’ll be doing cleanup into Thursday and possibly Friday depending on how the storm goes so we need people to move their cars so we can clear each side of the street.”

Driscoll Dunham says the city will also be keeping an eye on private plow operators, and ticketing them if they push snow into the road or block sidewalks.

“People that are clearing driveways, parking lots, we really need them to abide by the rules because a plow will go by, and somehow snow makes its way into the right-of-way, and it creates more work for everybody.  Keeping it out of the right-of-way, off sidewalks is what we’re asking.”

She says the city is counting on everyone to follow ordinances already on the books and do their part to help keep streets and sidewalks clear.  Driscoll Dunham says feedback is also important.  People can call the Cityline at 448-CITY to report a problem.  

Scott Willis covers politics, local government, transportation, and arts and culture for WAER. He came to Syracuse from Detroit in 2001, where he began his career in radio as an intern and freelance reporter. Scott is honored and privileged to bring the day’s news and in-depth feature reporting to WAER’s dedicated and generous listeners. You can find him on twitter @swillisWAER and email him at srwillis@syr.edu.