PITTSBURGH — Just over a week since Channel 11 told you that a third of Pittsburgh’s snow plows were out of commission, city officials grilled Public Works about the status of the fleet.
Director of Public Works Chris Hornstein told council members that workers are doing the best they can with what they have. However, there are not enough trucks to get the job done.
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One council member wants to know what happened with some of the money.
“We’ve got to do better. We’ve got to do something here. I want to know where the money is. Where are the employees assigned? How many pieces of equipment did we order?” Theresa Kail Smith asked.
The questions didn’t stop there, after a winter full of repeat snow removal complaints.
“Why, when you leave the city and enter into Munhall, the roads are pristine?” Councilman Bob Chaland asked.
“They commit six times the resources that we do to removing snow and ice,” Hornstein replied.
Hornstein said the city has 103 trucks with an average age of 11, but they’re still using one from 2008. He says 120 trucks is what the city needs to get the job done.
City Controller Rachael Heisler delivered some sobering news. She says the budget only calls for $3 million on new vehicles for public safety and public works over the next five years.
“When you’re only spending $3 million, trucks break down, ambulances break down, snow removal vehicles bread down, fire trucks break down, police vehicles break down. And the fleet is aging, and it’s aging rapidly,” she said.
Kail Smith said the council gave Mayor Ed Gainey $4 million in his first budget in 2023 to buy new trucks and hire new workers to improve snow removal.
“We have spent money constantly, trying to deliver better services to our residents and yet, somehow every year, it seems that there’s another issue, another problem,” she said.
In 2023, the city bought eight new dump trucks and two new pickup trucks, but the council budget director says most of that was paid for by the park tax. Currently, it’s unclear what happened to the $4 million allocated to improve snow removal.
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