KSHB 41 reporter Rachel Henderson covers neighborhoods in Wyandotte and Leavenworth counties. Share your story idea with Rachel.
—
With winter weather coming to Kansas City, Kansas, later in the week, residents and city leadership say they don't want the neglect felt after January's storm to resurface this time around.
"We don't want anyone to feel neglected, and our drivers, because they're actually from this community, they take this work to heart," said Dave Reno, the community engagement officer for the Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kansas' Public Works Department. "They live here too."
Lee Trotter helps operate La Paz Neighborhood Food Pantry at Grandview Park Presbyterian Church in KCK.
Snow removal is not Trotter's forte, but he knows how he felt last month.
"I just feel kinda, the city wasn't prepared enough," Trotter said.
Reno says January's snow storm was "historic" and used about 23% of the overall $1,047,210 snow removal budget.
"We like to prepare for storms in advance, but when you have a historic snowstorm on your hands, yeah, it's a little bit rougher," Reno said.
He said KCK is taking a similar approach to the upcoming storm, but there are also lessons they learned from last time they don't want to repeat.
"One of the big challenges we have right now is a lot of our drivers are brand new," Reno said. "So not only was the last snow storm their first snow storm, it was a historic snow storm."
He says the solution to that problem is getting those drivers more practice. With the upcoming weather, that shouldn't be a problem.
"They're going to switch into 12 hour shifts and start rotating through that until the streets are cleared again," Reno said.
The church where the pantry's housed sits at the intersection of south 17th Street and Wilson Boulevard.
"I saw [city plows], they pretreated it, which was good, but then the snow hit, and then they shoveled it, and there was never any salt put down after that, that I saw," Trotter said.
One young lady missed work because she couldn't get her car out of the neighborhood. It was just disappointing."
After five days of seeing no plows in January, Trotter's pantry was nearly impacted because he couldn't drive the pantry's U-Haul truck to pick up or deliver food.
"Wednesday, Thursday, it was like, 'Hey, we gotta be able to get into the church with this food and everything on Friday and then have people come in and get the food on Saturday, so we were kind of getting nervous about that,'" Trotter said. "It was a little frustrating because the city had said they were gonna take care of it, 'Hey, we got all the main done, we got a couple of neighborhoods, we should get the rest done,' and we were begging them, and it took a while."
Reno says KCK has 2,400 lane miles that are plowed during a snowstorm that are split into three routes: hot, secondary and neighborhood.
Neighborhoods fall last on the city's priority list of routes after main roads servicing law enforcement or emergency vehicles found on hot and secondary routes.
"The neighborhoods need cleared as much as the main roads because there's people in the neighborhoods who need to get out to those main roads," Trotter said.
It takes approximately 12 to 24 hours to clear hot and secondary routes, and about 48 hours after that to clear neighborhood routes.
"In a big storm, it could take some time to get to your neighborhood route," Reno said. "I think one of the challenges with this storm is going to be the cold yet again."
Reno says below-freezing temperatures impacted snow removal efforts during January's storm and could result in what appears to be a "slower" process.
"When it's really cold, salt becomes less effective," Reno said. "It does melt snow and ice, it just does it really, really slowly."
He also says there/s reasoning behind not stripping down snow all the way to ice layer.
"In some situations, we actually do leave snow pack around because it provides just a little bit more traction than regular ice would," Reno said.
A tip he has for residents, besides staying off the roads if possible, is to work in tandem with plows.
"Plows always push snow to the right-hand side, the passenger side," Reno said. "So if you're facing the end of your driveway, if you push all of the snow in your driveway to the right-hand side of your driveway, when that plow comes by, it’s going to spread it across your front yard instead of pushing it across your driveway."
Trotter says the position several residents were in last time around wasn’t ideal, but is also preventable.
"That just doesn't look good for KCK, and we want to see our community grow, but we love KCK, and we need some help from our own government," Trotter said. "I think our government needs to be aware of what goes on in the neighborhoods, not just in city hall, or in main business areas. We hope they do better."
He says collaboration and more open communication are key.
"We need to work together," Trotter said. "Not just this thing, but everything."
To report an issue in your neighborhood to the Public Works department at 3-1-1.
Visit wycokck.org/snow or the UG’s Facebook page for updates on snow removal operations and any announcements for potential trash/recycling pickup delays.
—