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Light Rain Long Beach City Manager gears up for next snowstorm
Meeting with department heads includes comprehensive planning to avoid last year's missteps
In an attempt to avoid a repeat of last year’s heavily criticized snow removal efforts in Long Beach following a blizzard that buried the city with nearly two feet of snow, City Manager Jack Schnirman recently met with a number of department heads to better plan for the next major snowstorm.
With the National Weather Service calling for 1-2 inches of snow in Long Beach on Saturday, Schnirman met last week with department heads to discuss snow emergency planning as the winter months move forward and in the years ahead.
The 90-minute meeting, which included the heads of the Public Works, Beach Maintenance and Sanitation departments, focused on how the city would better prepare for a major snowstorm. Topics discussed ranged from available equipment and manpower to how residents would be notified and updated.
The latter includes making better use of social media websites, with Schnirman saying that residents could visit the city’s website or its Facebook and Twitter pages for up-the-minute information in the event of a storm.
“We gathered all of the players in one room, and this was the first time that they’ve been gathered for a meeting like this without any imminent storm coming,” Schnirman said. “To take a proactive approach, we went over the different levels of preparation and got folks talking about what went right, what went wrong and how things can be improved.”
On Dec. 26, 2010, Long Beach declared a snow emergency and the blizzard buried Long Beach with nearly two feet of snow. Many residents, however, criticized the previous administration for its snow-removal efforts, with some saying that their streets were not plowed for days.
City officials at the time said that despite best efforts, the snow-removal work proved daunting for crews, especially along narrow streets in the West End, the Canals and the president streets. Many of the city’s plows and payloaders, city officials said, were simply too big to make their way down many narrow streets.
“We did discuss the different kind of vehicles required and what the availability of those vehicles are,” Schnirman said.
