Shields Reports on City’s Response to Blizzards

By GEORGE BROMLEY
Falls Church Times Staff

February 24, 2010

At Monday night’s City Council meeting, City Manager Wyatt Shields summarized Falls Church’s response to February’s record snowfall.

Calling the recent events “an extremely expensive storm,” Mr. Shields stated that the City had submitted a request for $260,000 to the Virginia Department of Emergency Management (VDEM).  Falls Church is eligible for 75% reimbursement of costs incurred.  The City’s total request, including that for the December storm, is for $330,000.

The latest storms dropped a total of 32 inches of snow on Falls Church, 22 inches on February 5-6 and 10 inches more on February 10.  The December storm left approximately 20 inches.

In his discussion of the February storms, Mr. Shields explained that workers first “pre-treated” every street in the City.  Once 2 inches had fallen, they began to “push snow off” snow emergency routes first.  When the snow stopped and the snow emergency streets were clear, they began plowing residential streets.

“In both events, we were able to get a plow on every street in the City within 24 hours of the cessation of snowfall.  We had our streets clear before traffic packed them down and we opened our school system earlier than any other jurisdiction in Northern Virginia or the Capital region,” he said.

Mr. Shields noted that City Hall was closed for three days due to concern for the safety of employees getting to and from work, and to assist a regional effort in keeping traffic off the area’s roads.  However, work was still accomplished by people working from home computers.  “We got our Council and Planning Commission meeting packages out and the package on solid waste disposal,” he said.

Mr. Shields had high praise for the way City workers coped with the demands of the storm.  “I believe we did rise to the occasion.  We had employees sleeping in their trucks, sleeping in cots at the property yard, our public safety officers also stayed overnight.”

Calling their efforts “extraordinary,” he lauded the employees’ strong esprit d’corps and determination to complete the job.  The City Manager also credited outstanding leadership on the part of Director of Operations Robert Goff, General Manager of Community Services Howard Herman, and Public Safety officers Harry Reitze and Mary Gavin.

The request for reimbursement does not cover all of the costs incurred during the past weeks, only two 48-hour blocks of time during the height of the February storms.  Additional costs include the loss of slate off of the roof of City Hall and many of the building’s gutters.

Mr. Shields noted there is reason for concern regarding the reimbursement.  “We haven’t heard a word back from VDEM with respect to our submissions on the December storm, which were submitted in early January.”  Vice Mayor Hal Lippman offered to lobby for these funds when he attends the next meeting of the Northern Virginia Regional Commission.

After noting that the City crews had done an amazing job, Councilman Dan Maller raised the issue of commercial sidewalk clearance.  He suggested that at some point Falls Church might have to take an approach similar to the one it has opted for toward graffiti, where owners who do not promptly remove the defacings are billed by the City for the work.  Mr. Shields stated that the City had issued 19 warnings for failure to clear sidewalks, with “violations behind them.”