NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The City of Hutchinson is going to attempt to clear some of the side streets in large snowstorms starting in the 2024-2025 season.
"A lot of it just stems from approaching it innovatively within the equipment that we have, the staffing that we have, we believe that we can accomplish these objectives," said Hutchinson City Manager Enrico Villegas.
What can residents expect in terms of service level?
"Every city does it differently," Villegas said. "In this example, say, if it's from a dusting to two inches, we would leave the residential street alone. If it's from two to three inches that we would do one pass in and one pass out. If it exceeds four then we would do back of curb to back of curb or at least attempt to."
They can only do that in areas the plows can get through.
"We intend to place reasonable limitations on this kind of new level of service if you will," Villegas said. "For example, if it's a if the width of the road Is very narrow and cars are parked on both sides of the street then we would skip that street, if we can't reasonably fit a plow in there. In this situation, that is the level of service that that street is used to is not having their road plowed, so it's not like they're being deprived of anything."
They don't expect everything to be perfect with the first snowfall.
"There's always going to be challenges," Villegas said. "We anticipate kind of growing pains with this the first year second year third year, but hopefully as we move throughout we get better and better, the expectations are understood from the community, but we do anticipate some growing pains with this."
The Hutchinson City Council meeting is at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall.