Cincinnati officials say the city is undergoing a comprehensive review of winter storm preparation and snow removal. The Department of Public Services updated a City Council committee on Tuesday with the progress of that review so far.
City Manager Sheryl Long says this performance review began before the major winter storm this month.
"It's unfortunate that we were smacked by a historic winter storm before the solutions could be fully realized," Long said.
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Council members say their offices were flooded with resident complaints after near-record snowfall a couple weeks ago. Anna Albi says it amounts to a systemic breakdown.
"This is just fundamentally not a message we can send to our residents — that we don't care and we just forgot about them," Albi said. "So I really want to dig into what happened to those streets that weren't touched, those dead end streets, whether it's Mount Washington, Mount Adams or Westwood. What happened?"
Public services officials responded by saying that's still being assessed, along with many other unanswered questions.
Council member Seth Walsh says it's evident that problems pre-date the most recent winter storm.
"Unfortunately, this isn't the first time we've come up short," he said. "We keep talking about unprecedented, historic, et cetera. Almost every time we have a snow emergency, we come up short. This has just really exemplified it in a very big, public way."
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Walsh asked a seemingly simple question: is every city street included in a snow plow route?
"I think, from a technology standpoint, that's what we want to make sure. So that's the goal," replied Jarrod Bolden, superintendent for traffic and road operations. "And the fact that we don't know that answer to be sure right now is what we're going to work to."
Walsh thanked Bolden for his honesty: "It sounds like the very basic system that broke down is that we don't even have a system in place to make sure every street is plowed."
Possible solutions
DPS Director Jerry Wilkerson outlined several possible solutions that are being studied as part of the comprehensive review.
One of the biggest challenges is implementing technology to better track snow plows and make route adjustments in real-time. Right now, drivers use binders with routes on paper, and there's no real-time GPS tracking.
Wilkerson says the city's online snow plow tracker map is a tool for the public, but is not useful for managing snow removal.
"The snow tracker app is just dealing with pings on streets beginning and end," he said. "It doesn't really tell you that the truck actually went down there, or went to that street, or show you a map of the streets it went down. That's a huge limitation in this day."
The goal is to also integrate resident reports made through 311 so that DPS staff have all the information in one place.
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Other goals include pulling staff from other departments to drive plows earlier during winter weather to begin clearing residential streets. DPS also will consider outfitting vehicles from other departments to temporarily work on snow removal as needed.
Council member Jeff Cramerding says many of these ideas have been discussed at City Hall for years.
"We're in a cycle that we look for solutions and then we forget them," he said. "To me, the only way to create a permanent solution is to create a metric, a permanent metric, that we can all understand."
Cramerding, who is chair of Council's Budget and Finance Committee, says he'll be considering what that metric could be ahead of deliberations for the fiscal year 2026 budget.
What about sidewalks and paths?
Clearing sidewalks is the responsibility of property owners, not the city.
Council Member Meeka Owens asked about shared-use paths like Wasson Way. Wilkerson said that is not the responsibility of Public Services.
A city spokesperson replied to WVXU's request for more information with a statement:
"Presently, the City does not clear Wasson Way and sidewalks on City-owned overpasses due to limited capacity of departments. Those areas are incorporated in the decision-making and improvements moving forward. The City Manager has directed DOTE to review resources internally and assess the possibility of contracting with external partners in the future for this specific work."
