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By TONI COLEMAN tonic@leader.net
Thursday, January 27, 2000 Page: 3A
WILKES-BARRE – In a city where the mayor prides himself on his large fleet of
snow plows and salt trucks, some motorists said Wednesday morning they had to
contend with slippery, snow-packed roads.
Across the Susquehanna River, motorists sounded happier. Kingston’s roads
were clear, the only hints of a major storm were the snow piles flanking the
roads.
“(The roads) were fine until I got to Wilkes-Barre,” said Nicholas
Alapack, a downtown employee who drove in from Kingston.
“Wilkes-Barre was worse than the rest,” said Keith Butler, who drove in
from Plymouth. “It seemed like they weren’t salting the roads.”
The storm was the first true test of the city’s winter storm preparedness
since it resumed the task of plowing and salting state-owned roads in 1997.
Among the state-owned roads the city plows are Market, River, Scott and Main
streets.
At the height of the storm, the city had 19 plows on the road, the largest
fleet the city has ever had working at one time, said Mayor Tom McGroarty.
During the blizzard of 1996, 12 trucks were out.
From the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, the city plowed state-owned roads and
was reimbursed by PennDot. Then in 1996, McGroarty allowed the state to plow
because the state’s reimbursements, about $35,000, were not keeping up with
snow-removal costs. In 1997, the city began plowing state roads again.
The city resumed control over state roads because it didn’t make sense to
plow some city streets and skip the rest – especially when the state owns so
many roads within city limits, McGroarty said.
“The men worked very hard, and I’m very proud of them,” he said.
Wilkes-Barre’s Department of Public Works employees worked Tuesday from 7
a.m. to midnight. “They worked 19 hours. I don’t know how much more we could
push the guys,” McGroarty said.
Kingston’s Public Works employees also worked continuously through
midnight, said Paul Keating, administrator. Kingston resumed plowing at 5 a.m.
Wednesday to ensure the roads were clear for the morning rush hour. The
majority of Wilkes-Barre workers began plowing again at 10 a.m. Wednesday.
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation is responsible for plowing
Market Street and Wyoming Avenue, both state roads that run through Kingston.
Though the streets were a slushy mess Wednesday morning, Wilkes-Barre
police Chief Bill Barrett said there has been an “unusually low” number of
traffic crashes.
Call Coleman at 829-7236.