CINCINNATI — “I’m doing my best to keep council calm and that will only work for so long if people keep saying that they have not had a plow hit their street once.”
That’s what Cincinnati City Manager Sheryl Long wrote in a Jan. 8 email to senior staff, days after a historic storm buried the region in nearly a foot of snow. She was fielding emails from frustrated council members and residents tired of being stuck in their homes.
She asked the Office of Performance & Data Analytics to determine which streets had been missed by plows so they could reach them before Friday.
A day later, those data experts used GPS pings from snowplows to produce a list of more than 600 untreated streets.
“They say they are 80% confident in the list. It is impossible to believe we have that many untreated streets,” Department of Public Services Operations Superintendent Chandra Yungbluth wrote in a Jan. 10 email to her bosses, questioning whether some were private lanes or outside city limits.
WATCH: We look through communications between city officials regarding winter storm response
The WCPO 9 I-Team obtained communications between city leaders during Winter Storm Blair. They reveal a chaotic response marked by equipment breakdowns, vastly outdated technology, an overwhelmed workforce and public workers who refused to volunteer to help with snow removal.
Throughout that week, some council members questioned why streets leading to hospitals and schools were still in bad shape. They also passed on dozens of complaints from residents who never saw a snowplow.
“We are on a steep hill and it has been extremely dangerous for residents to get up and especially down the hill … even UPS and Amazon trucks cannot even make it up the incline,” wrote a Linwood resident in a Jan. 9 email. “We are now on Day 5 and our hill will only get worse if more snow comes on Friday. This is completely unacceptable and residents … are pleading to the city for help.”
"Reaching out to you for help. We don't know what else to do. As the prospect of another 3-5" of snow coming later today ... we are incredibly worried and my family and our neighbors feel like our city services have abandoned us," a Pleasant Ridge resident wrote in a Jan. 10 email, expressing worry that an ambulance could not get down his street to help elderly neighbors if an emergency occurred.
Council member Seth Walsh became so worried and frustrated with the city’s lack of response that he posted on Twitter for residents to contact him directly. Within 24 hours, he received more than 100 emails.
“We did not plow every street, and we don’t even know which ones we didn’t touch,” Walsh said. “This is life or death for some people. Our inability to get this done could have had serious ramifications and we’re very lucky it didn’t.”
Walsh was in frequent contact with city leaders throughout the storm.
“Someone just texted me that around the UC hospital, specifically MLK is still pretty bad. Specifically described as ‘like the Iditarod,'” Walsh texted city department heads on Jan. 7.
His office arranged for a welfare check for an elderly couple in Sedamsville who had been stranded in their house for nearly a week after a plow missed their street.
A disabled veteran emailed that he missed medical appointments because his Riverside street was not plowed. Councilman Mark Jeffreys responded that he would pass along the complaint to public services, but also urged him to use the city’s 311 app.
“I have already emailed the 311 system … 3 times!” the veteran responded.
Walsh said his office staff members had similar experiences with the 311 app, with their requests for plows being closed immediately.
“Public services is a department we have gutted over the years,” Walsh said. “They probably operate at 50% of where they should be operating at. I take that very seriously.”
During that storm, 21 vehicles were taken out of service for repairs, including many from 2007. That comprised 20% of the city’s winter operation fleet.
Many city drivers retired during the pandemic, resulting in a very inexperienced workforce for the recent snowstorm. Some had never operated a snowplow before and quit. Drivers relied on binders of paper maps to find their routes, which city leaders admitted led to missed streets.
They were supposed to be helped by four trucks from the Metropolitan Sewer District. But as the storm went on, many MSD workers refused to drive the trucks to haul snow out of the Central Business District and plow roads.
“One of the things we really need to address across the board is the idea that snow emergencies are an option. Not sure how many I’ll have returning tonight to haul out of downtown,” Department of Public Services Director Jerry Wilkerson texted his bosses on Jan. 7.
“It’s a shift-by-shift choice,” asked assistant city manager William Weber.
“It’s voluntary outside of DPS,” Wilkerson responded.
Three days later, Wilkerson notified his bosses again about the lack of help from MSD.
“MSD has 4 outfitted trucks that if we are not hauling with them out of the CBD then we will use them to treat the streets. My contact from MSD works hard for me to get resources here is his response for filling those 4 trucks for tonight and tomorrow morning. Not a ton of interest in plowing, I’ve been trying.”
That bothered Walsh, who said the city must be all hands on deck during a snow emergency, whether a historic storm or a few inches.
Walsh called this a “wake-up call,” but didn’t blame snowplow drivers or City Manager Sheryl Long for the poor response.
“This is not a system that has been broken down under Sheryl’s watch. This is a system that has been broken for 55-plus years,” Walsh said. “At the end of the day, we are failing. Let’s call it what it is.”
The heavy and frequent snowfall that week combined with frigid temperatures, “was a perfect storm, no pun intended,” Long said, leading to equipment failure and exhausted employees.
Long has a list of changes she hopes to make before next winter, including negotiating with unions to ensure that more city employees work during snow emergencies, instead of being allowed to volunteer.
“That is something that is on our radar,” Long said. “We are actually in the process of contract negotiation … and that conversation will be had.”
Long will also recommend more money in the upcoming city budget for better equipment. She cautioned that it may be two years before new vehicles arrive because of supply chain issues.
“What we are going to do, and I think Council is also supporting this as well, is they want to make sure that we recommend funding for fleet, but we also want to make sure that we get an idea of what we really need,” Long said. “Public services compete for the same resources as police and fire. Our budget is about prioritizing, we don’t have an abundance of resources.”
Council member Jeff Cramerding is pushing for funding soon. He proposed spending $994,000 from the $1.29 million capital project reserve on fleet needs for public services, fire and police. Four other council members signed his motion, which will be discussed at next week's budget committee meeting.
Another top priority for Long is ensuring that plows hit every street in the city. She also wants to update technology so plow drivers can follow their routes without relying on binders.
“That is something that I want to make sure that I push and … give them whatever resources they need so that can be done, that is my goal,” Long said.
Another goal is to improve the city’s snowplow tracker. During the storm, many residents complained that plows drove down their streets without plowing or salting.
“We go off the (GPS) pings … you can see where the vehicle is going, but you don’t know what it's doing,” said Long, who wants to provide the public with real-time information about if the truck is plowing and salting, or simply driving to get gas or to get to a different street.
Long is also considering holding a town hall before next winter to tell residents what to expect, how the city prepares, when and how to use the 311 app, and which agency handles certain issues.
“It’s been years since we had a snowstorm of this magnitude but it's also the first significant one that we’ve had since COVID … and a number of seasoned employees went out the door,” said assistant city manager Cathy Bailey.
“So we’ve had to regroup in many ways across the city but I think that now it gives us an opportunity to plan and practice,” Bailey said. “Plan what we need to do … but then practice it as well, so we can be ready for the next one. Because we know the next one is coming.”
