Fort Collins city officials say they made the decision the day last week’s blizzard started to plow every residential street and didn’t stop until Christmas night, when every street had been plowed.
In Edgewater, the mayor says, crews plowed only major arterial and emergency routes, which in the city of 4,500 means three streets – 20th and 26th avenues and Harlan Street – and residents who are still digging out are obviously upset.
Aurora officials also focused on major and emergency routes but had managed to plow every street in the city at least once by Tuesday morning.
Cities outside of Denver took different routes to clear their streets after the blizzard.
“We had a person who called at 1:30 a.m. on Christmas morning complaining we were out plowing and they couldn’t sleep because of the excess noise,” said Fort Collins City Manager Darin Atteberry, estimating the city spent about $400,000 on snow removal for the blizzard. “It’s a balancing act. Some people aren’t going to be happy no matter the circumstance.”
That was the case, as the Fort Collins Coloradoan newspaper reported. An online poll showed 36 percent of respondents said the snow removal was terrible – while 34 percent said it was adequate and 29 percent said the city did a great job.
The city has a policy of not plowing residential streets but made an exception in this case, Atteberry said, because of the amount of snow that fell. Other cities, including Boulder and Centennial, have a similar policy but decided to plow residential streets as well.
Some question those claims.
Centennial resident Ann Kennedy, who lives on East Nichols Circle, said Tuesday morning that no plows had hit her street, so she and her husband used their sport utility vehicle to pick up groceries and run errands for neighbors who couldn’t get out.
“It’s pathetic,” Kennedy said. “It just chapped my hide.”
Centennial Mayor Randy Pye said the city contracts with Arapahoe County to plow streets. He said 19 plows are dedicated to Centennial.
But the plows do not go into cul-de-sacs because the equipment is hard to turn around. When the Colorado Department of Transportation had to divert plows from Arapahoe Road and University Boulevard to the interstates, county plows were diverted there, and that may have slowed things down.
In Aurora, officials said, the first day of the storm was largely a rescue mission, as many were stranded along East 56th Avenue trying to get into and out of Denver International Airport. The next priority was to clear emergency routes to hospitals and police and fire stations, followed by connector streets and, finally, residential streets.
Chris Carnahan, Aurora manager of street operations, said crews now are focusing on removing ice that has built up on the street before the next storm, scheduled for Thursday.
Boulder officials also have turned their focus to breaking up the ice and hauling it away. A crew of up to 18 workers was out Tuesday, spokeswoman Jennifer Bray said. One bad spot, she said, was University Hill, where ice had rutted the streets and drivers could not get traction.
Residents in Edgewater have seen little snow removal – and that’s by design, Mayor Ronalda Goodner said.
The city has one plow, two pickups with blades on the front, a loader and a grader to clear snow, so it focused only on the three major roads for emergency purposes. She said the city has received a handful of complaints but that it is doing the best it can.
“Have we pleased everybody? No,” Goodner said. “Have we tried to please everybody? No. Are we trying to keep our roads open and safe? Yes.”
