Snow Removal Commentary Highlight Of Short Council Meeting

Oskaloosa Snow Plow

Oskaloosa, Iowa – Newly elected and re-elected officials were sworn in at Monday nights Oskaloosa City Council meeting.

Steve Burnett was sworn in as 4th Ward council member, while Joe Caligiuri and Tom Jimenez were both sworn back into office. Dave Krutzfeldt was once again sworn in as Mayor.

Oskaloosa City Manager Michael Schrock addressed the calls and concerns that councilmembers and employees have received about the condition of the roads after the last winter storm.

Schrock said that of the 7 city employees, 6 were able to respond and help remove snow. “It’s kind of an unfortunate set of circumstances between the number of hours that our staff were able to work, the holiday and then just the type of event that we had.”

“Some areas were not necessarily cleared to everyone’s liking and so my apologies,” said Schrock to the council and to the public.

Schrock explained that the staff averaged 45 hours in total hours worked. “We’ve been sticking to the removal policy to try to minimize the amount of hours for snow removal. We get it to a point where it’s generally safe. We still urge the public to be cautious and then we have employees cut loose, and then they come back on straight pay to complete the rest of the removal.”

Schrock explained, “That type of move has saved the city tens of thousands of dollars. If I remember correctly, it was 50 plus or 60 thousand dollars the first year we instituted that type of policy.”

“There is an immediate impact. It’s real dollars,” explained Schrock.