City of CDA Responds To Plow Question

Remember the thread below from last week, about how New York and Chicago put plows on the front of their garbage trucks when it snows? Well, I emailed the City of Coeur d'Alene to see how feasible that would be for our area. Tim Martin took the time to respond (Thanks Tim, we know you're busy!) and said this:

I think you would find that this would not be feasible for the city of Coeur d'Alene. Several factors involved in this reasoning.

The city of Coeur d’Alene contract to Waste Management for the curb or alleyway pickup for refuse and recyclable goods. With that process we would have to coordinate with them so we could use our “State of the Art” loaders with gates on the plows. This allows us to reduce the size of the berms in driveways.

By coordinating this effort, I believe snow service would be reduced as we would be limited to only being able to plow where these routes were for that given day.

If I were to look into the city of Detroit and New York’s snow plan I would imagine that they did not plow residential areas. I did look up their respective annual amount of snow and they are meager I compared to what we receive. Less than 35 inches.

There was a letter to the editor in yesterday's Spokesman-Review (which I can't find now) about how the cities of New York and Detroit attach plows to the front of garbage trucks when they have storms. The trucks plow their way to each garbage stop, killing two birds with one stone.

Very interesting, but how feasible is that for North Idaho? I contacted the City Street Department to ask, but probably won't hear back until tomorrow since the City is closed for the holiday. I'll give an update when I know more.