Downtown drifts, snow mounds pose challenges

NEWARK – Some members of the Downtown Newark Association expressed snow removal concerns at Tuesday’s meeting, saying customers have difficulty reaching the sidewalk after parking their cars at the the Courthouse Square.

Piles of snow between parked cars and sidewalks prevent drivers from easily reaching stores, they said. Members said the city has moved snow from the Square to another location in years past, but that hasn’t happened recently.

Buster Prince, superintendent of the Newark Street Department’s traffic division, said snow was moved from the area Thursday and Friday, but additional snowfall over the weekend recreated the problem almost immediately.

Prince said his crews are moving snow to Everett Park as has been done in years past, but added crews have to prioritize where to put their resources.

On Tuesday, Prince said crews were working to open drains and clear crosswalks ahead of forecast rain and potential flooding concerns.

Prince has 14 people in the street department and four who work in the traffic division who are divided into two 12-hour shifts to take care of all Newark’s streets, along with portions of Ohio 16 and Ohio 79 that are within city limits.

After several snowfalls in a row with little time and low temperatures in between, Prince said phones at his department have been ringing off the hooks. He said he received about 100 calls Monday for complaints about roads that had not been plowed to residents’ satisfaction.

“They look at what they think we should plow and what we can actually plow are two different things,” he said. “The street may be plowed but it’s not clean to the curb, but I can’t get there because of the cars.”

Prince said residents should use their driveways to park if they are able to help crews better clean side streets.

Residents and businesses are responsible for cleaning the sidewalks in front of their buildings or storefronts.