December 2, 2025 • 16 mins
As Cincinnati recovers from the first snow storm of the season, Councilmember Seth Walsh joins Scott to give an update on the road clearing response.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Do want to be in a mad.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Harry Harry Harry is I don't mean style also I
mean Harry driving this morning. The Roadways seven hundred w W.
Scott's Loan show first significant snowfall of the season two
to four plus depending where you are early on this morning.
The earl early hours are extremely difficult. I heard poor
Chuck Ingram and traffic getting in about three and a
(00:24):
half hours late this morning. Left at three o'clock, didn't
get it until just after six sometime. And same for
Brian Combs and a bunch of other folks. Right, I
got here about six thirty, so I left the left
my place at until after six o'clock, and it was,
you know, thirty five in this ice eventy one by
the way, maybe thirty five miles an hour some spots
(00:45):
and after that, but those coming in now, I you're
driving right now.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Roads O doubts certainly did a great job.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
The other question would be the counties, but also the
city of Cincinnati last January. We know snow removal of
the city was a complete train wreck, was a disaster.
We had equipment breakdown, shortages, roads left untreated, communication problems
this time, lots of changes with snowplows equipped with state
of the art technology to track routes and a new
real time snow applow tracker website that apparently is not
(01:14):
working as it should on that And he's out on
the street right now. That is a council member, Seth
Walsh on the show campaigned on the issue of snowplows
and snow removal, so he is our official snow guy
for the City of Cincinnati.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Seth, welcome back. Where are you right now?
Speaker 4 (01:29):
We've just exited the UC area checking out around you
see health that was a hard spot last year when
the big snowstorm came in. We could literally couldn't gage
cancer patients to U see help. But it's looking great
right now.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
You're actually out there.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Someone's driving you around, Buddy's driving you around, just because
you want a lay of the land. You want to
see what's working and what's not. Give me on a
scale of one to ten, how impressed are you with
the snow removal this morning with the City of Cincinnati.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Yeah, I'm gonna go seven or eight.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
This is prior already the priority streets have really they're
looking really good from what I'm seeing right now, and
I think that's an incredible testament to the hard work
of GPS overnight, the strategy they put in place of
last year and make sure we didn't have to mess
up from last from the last year. And you know, frankly,
Priority one streets are looking good. I think that we're
(02:18):
going to see over the rest of the day, we're
going to get the rest of the side streets taken
care of, and you know, we'll move that up to
a ten when we get there.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Yeah, and on that too.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Last year there were literally city managers said, hey, listen,
there's going to be maybe it was some bridges and
roads said that listen, there's some streets that aren't going
to get plowed. It's just a matter of fact. Is
that has that changed since this time last year?
Speaker 1 (02:40):
That's my understanding.
Speaker 4 (02:41):
Yes, you know, we found last year after the snow
emergency that there were six hundred streets we didn't even
know that we hadn't touched.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
And so we have literally redrawn the maps.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
We've put in place a new system that makes so
much sense. You know, it's a GPS based system where
you can actually real time track streets are being plowed,
what streets have not been touched.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
And then we're making sure we're hitting all of them.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
And even though the Cloud Tracker is kind of hit
or miss right now, that's mostly because they have too
money people coming to watch it. It's working. It seems
to be working really well.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Yeah, on that, we're getting some calls. We had difficulty
trying to log on and see in real time what
roads have been plowed, and we had calls many a
lot of people expressing frustration with that, and it's a
bandwidth issue. I understand that, but is heavily this was
that with all the problems last years, heavily this this
solution was advertised. Shouldn't shouldn't that have been an issue
that was foreseen that a lot of people are getting
(03:34):
get on to see what the roads look like.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
I would say that the issue that we did not
foresee was how successful our marketing campaign would be at
getting people to.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Trust this and use it.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
Because we definitely expected a lot of usage, we did
not expect nearly as much as we're getting today. And
I think that's I think that's fantastic, and we're going
to get it fixed for the next time.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
That's why you stress test these experiences.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
And we're found out that it's you know, it is
working hit or miss. I've had the same problems that
you're talking about there, but the miss is the problem,
and so we're going to we're going to increase that bandwidth.
We're going to make it better for the next time.
Unfortunately that is the problem. But frankly, I'd rather take
a problem. We have too many people watching a successful
system than last year, where it was literally making up
data and making us think that it hit streets that
it had we hadn't come close to touching.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Yeah, but I guess you'll push it back if if
you stress test something, it shows you it's working. Apparently
the stress test wasn't stressful enough.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
Well, I mean, yesterday I was watching it. It was
really it was actually really fun to watch. As we
were showing what streets were getting pre treated. We were
getting a lot of comments from people that they've never
seen so many so many poles out there pre treating roads.
But then today the snow hits a lot more people
watched it. So what we expected to stress us to
have in terms of how many people would watch it,
(04:51):
we've we've passed. Then today finds out that a lot
more people are watching it again. That's a good problem
to have. Yes, we got to do.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Better at it. We're going to do better at it.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
But the problem is too many people ultimately are watching it,
and that we didn't anticipate.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
And I think we will fix that. And that's an easy.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
Problem to fix, as opposed to again last year, where
we literally just didn't pole.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Six hundred streets. That's a big problem. This is a
little Okay, let's fix that internal it problem.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Yeah, I'm not going to be labor the snow tracker
app or the website anyway being down from time to
time and getting you know, slow to load and things
because so many people are watching it. I don't think
that's a pot It's a step in the right direction
of the sense that you know, last year it was
six hundred roads if you're simply were left untreated and
not enough equipment, not enough manpower, not enough everything, and
the communication was terrible, the communication as much. You know,
(05:39):
if we get it right for the next no Store,
I'm fine. If we don't, there's probably more problems there
than not. But the fact of the matter is the
roads are getting treated and plowed. That's the big thing.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
Absolutely, And to your point about communication. I mean here,
in forty five minutes, the director of DPS is going
to be coming to city Council to talk about, you know,
all the work we've done the last year anyway, So
we're actually we're getting what. We're not waiting a month
to have a conversation about what the reaction is. We're
actually going to get real time. Here's what happened, here's
how it's put out, Here's where we need to do better.
(06:11):
This is the first time that I think we've had
a pretty successful reaction to the.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Snow emergency in many, many years.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
And so yeah, there's a little some little things that
are fonts in the cracks, but on the whole, it's
looking good.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
And I think the fact that we're open to the
feedback and criticism is really critical as well, because for.
Speaker 4 (06:28):
Too long, you know, the answer was just well, when
you're not every sheet can get plotted, and that's just
not an acceptable answer.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
And this year we're not accepting that as an answer.
And I'm happy about that as well.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
You should be.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
I mean that this was the feather in your cap
to get this done. There is going to be some
rough patches as you roll this thing out. I think
most people understand it and appreciate it, but it's moving
in the right direction. And the last year, council Member
Seth Walsh, what was happening behind the scenes relative to
personnel changes, disciplinary actions, the failures addressed last year? What
(06:59):
what you to the last three hundred plus days.
Speaker 4 (07:04):
Well, since the snow emergency, I mean you saw some
of the reporting that came out right afterwards, you know,
immediately we were trying to figure out what was happening,
Why did we have such a terrible reaction to the
snow emergency?
Speaker 1 (07:16):
And lifted up the hood and we I mean we
found a multitude of problems, and so they moved Assistant city.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
Manager Kathy Bailey over DPS and she really dug in
on figuring out what happened, what support needed to be
better put in place, what systems need to be fixed.
They found over forty four different areas and let me
stress areas not like issues.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
So each area had its own issues that needed.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
To get fixed within it that they spent the last
three hundred plus days fixing.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
The DPS director at the time retired.
Speaker 4 (07:46):
We brought in Mark Riley, who has been fantastic, I
mean he was texting me this morning, giving me real
time updates of what was going on on the streets,
really making sure that we had this figured out. You know,
they found out within the first couple of days of
the emerge to see that we didn't touch six hundred streets,
and they've spent the last year really going through that
and redesigning all these snow routes. They've brought in all
(08:06):
this new technology, but also they haven't.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
We haven't solved all four to four.
Speaker 4 (08:10):
Of these issues yet because those are some massive issues
that we're solving. So we've solved the immediate problems and
then like today, we find you know, we got sixty
percent of the way there on the snowplow tracker. We
didn't expect as many people to be watching it as possible,
so we got to do better and we're going to
fix that for the next time. And there's other issues
we're going to continue to work on. But the real
big stuff is, you know, we have a plan to
actually pile the streets. And again, you're from Buffalo, off
(08:32):
from Michigan. Most of this comes down and you pre
treat it and then you plow it. And we literally
we're sending our crews out to Denver saying, how do
you take care of your streets?
Speaker 1 (08:41):
You guys want to handle this, and then we're taking
their businesses. We don't need to reinvent the wheel, and
I think you see that today.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Yeah, yeah, you look at the areas that get a
lot of snow and go, Okay, we don't need to
replicate that, but we need to learn best practices to
handle things here in Cincinnati. Seth makes a lot of
It makes a lot of sense. Did you add more
plod drivers this year?
Speaker 4 (09:01):
Yeah? So we actually, you know, it sounds crazy, but
we actually created a system where everybody is now that
would drive a plow is actually trained to drive a
plow instead of last time where we were literally putting
people behind the wheel for the first time ever. I've
actually just seen two snowplows in the last like thirty seconds,
which is a great sign here.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
So you know, last time part of the problem.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
If you if you can imagine, we were literally putting
people behind the wheel for the first time, giving them
a binder with map quest like directions to say, hey,
here's where you got to drive. They were driving in
the middle of a blizzard at night, with like flashlights
in their mouths to figure out where they had to go.
I mean, that's just chaotic and that's a mess, and
that's the reason we saw the disaster we saw. Now
(09:42):
these everybody who's driving a snowplow today that you see
out there has actually gone through simulations. They've been trained
on how to drive. We've brought people in who had
the appropriate trainings. We've been sentivized people to.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Get trained on how to do it. And they're out
there and they're doing a great job.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
And I think that day is going to continue to
show over the months and years ahead, have some really
positive returns for the city.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Yeah, and it's investing in that critical infrastructure. You know,
you can talk about all those bells and whistles and
nice stuff, but if the roads aren't plowed and the
roads aren't full of potholes, that's another issue that was
addressed to in the last year, then you're gonna have
very unhappy residents. So it's good to hear that this
has now become a big priority with you and the
rest of council.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
Seth.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
I think a tip of the hat. If the roads
are is good and you're you're driving around right now, well,
somebody's driving you around, so I'm gonna make it like
you're on the phone. By the way, I would if
I were that person, I'd be demanding you buy them
breakfast if you haven't already.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
And also the.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Other thing too is breakfast.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
It is the most important meal of the day. Also,
that the twelve hour ships are new, is that correct?
Say that again, the twelve hour ships? Yeah, I think
was it twenty four hour coverage? And you know there
was a huge burnout issue because I remember, you know,
news would be talking to people who are driving a
truck for twenty four straight hours being snowblind. And now
(10:57):
you've kind of even changed the way that the ships
are scheduled, right, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
I mean, so we got we put them on twelve
hour shifts. There's a select crew that's on twelve hour
shifts when the weather starts to change. But in emergencies
like this, we put people on the twelve hour shifts.
And you know, emergency I think is a very loose
word for what we're dealing with today.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
But yeah, they're on twelve hour shifts.
Speaker 4 (11:17):
They're hard work, and they were out all night again
yesterday they were pre treating watching that on the snowploud
tracker cool, and I think that's really important that you
can see your roads got appreciated and then today you
can see hopefully you know, as the day progressage of
they'll see your roads goot plowed and them they're they're
hard workers.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
And none of this problem has ever been the drivers.
The problem has been the system we set up has
failed them.
Speaker 4 (11:40):
And I think for the first time they're they're set
up for success and we're seeing that.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
We know Seth Walsh that the tracker only activates during
full winter response operations. What you call that like for
example the snow just remindfully, what's the threshold for that?
Speaker 3 (11:52):
Who makes the call?
Speaker 2 (11:53):
And we didn't have one during the dusting is I
think we had a conversation about that as well. We'll
change eventually to where any snow event where the roads
are treated will least snow where they're doing their job.
Speaker 4 (12:07):
Oh well, I don't want to talk too far out
of school on this one, but I think that that
was a little bit of some bureaucratic speak when we
gave that answer.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
I think this is again part of how we were
learning and growing.
Speaker 4 (12:18):
So last time when we had the dusting the reason
that the snowplow tractor wasn't working is there weren't snowplows
out there. And shortly before you and I had our
last call about this, one of the things I challenged
them on was, hey, we're pre treating streets like show people.
We're pre treating streets so you don't have to have
a snowplow out there. And you see this time again,
you can track the pre treating in your streets on there.
They reacted quickly, they made the adaptions.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
They move forward.
Speaker 4 (12:39):
So I think the appropriate answer how you track snowplows
is if there's a snowplow snowpower out there, you should
be able to track it. And if that is pre
treating your street, if that is power your street, we
want to.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Be able to track the snowpower.
Speaker 4 (12:51):
If you can't track it outside of the situation like
today where there's too many people watching it, you can't
track it, it's because there's no snowplow out there. And
then you can ask us why is it not snowplowt there.
We'll probably say it's because it's a sunny day and
there's not no reason for one.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
That's the hope at least.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
Yeah, well right exactly.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
I mean, if there's a threat, as we know, you
know Cincinnati's, we freak out the minute there's even the
forecast of snow. We start driving with our hazards on.
We pump our brakes. Some people drive sixty miles over
the speed limits and people thirty miles under the speed limit.
It's chaos out there before the first flake even flies.
I think having that system in place, when that's part
of it's like, hey, l roads are treated. There's a
little bit of comfort there knowing that you guys are on.
(13:28):
I think it's a good ad for the competence of
the city.
Speaker 4 (13:32):
I agree, and I think it's going to be critical
as schools have to make decisions about whether they're gonn
to be open or closed.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
You know, they have to build trust the city.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
Is going to be able to do their job and
get the streets plowed, and the part of city.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Government is rebuilding that trust.
Speaker 4 (13:47):
What happened last year was big in the sense of
is ten inches, but it's been an issue that's been
building a building building for years and so hopefully this
allows not only have streets clear, but to be able
to get schools open appropriately. Build trust that we were
ready for, and it just kind of ripples out from
there so that you know, jobs.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Aren't interrupted and people can continue their lives even though
snow's coming down.
Speaker 4 (14:07):
They get enjoy the beauty of watching the snow as
opposed to worry about driving in it.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
The other element of this too, you kind of touched
down a little bit, is the prioritization of streets. Obviously,
the arteries, the ones that get you to the hospitals
for example, campuses, things like that, those have to be
cleared for emergency runs and the like. Side streets get deprioritized.
But what is a reasonable wait for people listening this
morning seth wallsh relative to their street being cloud.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (14:31):
I think the biggest way I'd say it is, you know,
right off the bat, we've got to clear the arteries,
and to your point, you know, cancer not cancer hospitals
are really important because people need to be able to
get to and fro there from there.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
From there, we.
Speaker 4 (14:43):
Kind of spread out to you know, the streets that
most people are traveling on. You probably know what they
are because you're probably driving on them. And then once
the snow really kind of stops, it allows us to
start tackling and triage in the side streets, but immediately
when the snow's coming down, we're trying to get those
the main arteries, the main emergency roads, the main roads
people are going to be driving on as clear as possible.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
We just keep hitting them and then I'm gonna show's over.
Speaker 4 (15:07):
We're gonna go out there, We're gonna hit the side
streets and get those clear because that's a lot easier
to just hit it once or twice and then it's
completely solved.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Yeah, And I love the you know, the when the
apps up and fully working should be for the next
cycle here, then you're gonna be there's gonna be accountability.
You can see that where the roads are, when they've
been treated, when they've been plowed, where they've been salted
and plowed. There's a whole bunch of metrics on the page.
And that's a step in the right direction for sure.
I know, a little glitchy this morning with that website
not working at times, a little slow to load, but
(15:36):
you're confident you're going to get this taken care of
for the next round.
Speaker 4 (15:40):
I'm I'm very confident and I'm I'm optimistic that going
forward it will not be a thing in Cincinnati where
you say my street never gets plowed. If your street
doesn't get plowed, it should be for other reasons like
it's a private street, not because it's subsidious and Snati
street and we just don't plow it. And I think
that'd be a huge change that hopefully you don't even
realize happened.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
He says, well, well, she's in the thick of it
right now, checking out the roads, make sure the plow
crews are doing what they're doing, making sure of things
working right. It sounds certainly well, not perfect, light years
away from where we were well almost a year ago
in January when that ten inch storm and literally six
hundred streets not plowed. That is a unmitigated disaster. Far
sight better today for sure, Buddy. Appreciate you checking in
(16:19):
this morning, Seth as always. Thanks again, Thanks scott Council
member Seth Wilson in the Scotsland Show on seven hundred
w Dow.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
There you go.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Hopefully your commutes okay, And looks like a lot of
the roads got cleared in the last couple hours anyway
for those straggling the work.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
Maybe a little bit late this morning. That's good. That's good.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
So yeah, not perfect by any stretch of the imagination,
but far sight better than it was. At least the
needle is moving in the right direction, slowly with news.
We'll get a full traffic and weather update seconds away
here on seven hundred WLW
Do want to be in a mad.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Harry Harry Harry is I don't mean style also I
mean Harry driving this morning. The Roadways seven hundred w W.
Scott's Loan show first significant snowfall of the season two
to four plus depending where you are early on this morning.
The earl early hours are extremely difficult. I heard poor
Chuck Ingram and traffic getting in about three and a
(00:24):
half hours late this morning. Left at three o'clock, didn't
get it until just after six sometime. And same for
Brian Combs and a bunch of other folks. Right, I
got here about six thirty, so I left the left
my place at until after six o'clock, and it was,
you know, thirty five in this ice eventy one by
the way, maybe thirty five miles an hour some spots
(00:45):
and after that, but those coming in now, I you're
driving right now.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Roads O doubts certainly did a great job.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
The other question would be the counties, but also the
city of Cincinnati last January. We know snow removal of
the city was a complete train wreck, was a disaster.
We had equipment breakdown, shortages, roads left untreated, communication problems
this time, lots of changes with snowplows equipped with state
of the art technology to track routes and a new
real time snow applow tracker website that apparently is not
(01:14):
working as it should on that And he's out on
the street right now. That is a council member, Seth
Walsh on the show campaigned on the issue of snowplows
and snow removal, so he is our official snow guy
for the City of Cincinnati.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Seth, welcome back. Where are you right now?
Speaker 4 (01:29):
We've just exited the UC area checking out around you
see health that was a hard spot last year when
the big snowstorm came in. We could literally couldn't gage
cancer patients to U see help. But it's looking great
right now.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
You're actually out there.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Someone's driving you around, Buddy's driving you around, just because
you want a lay of the land. You want to
see what's working and what's not. Give me on a
scale of one to ten, how impressed are you with
the snow removal this morning with the City of Cincinnati.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Yeah, I'm gonna go seven or eight.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
This is prior already the priority streets have really they're
looking really good from what I'm seeing right now, and
I think that's an incredible testament to the hard work
of GPS overnight, the strategy they put in place of
last year and make sure we didn't have to mess
up from last from the last year. And you know, frankly,
Priority one streets are looking good. I think that we're
(02:18):
going to see over the rest of the day, we're
going to get the rest of the side streets taken
care of, and you know, we'll move that up to
a ten when we get there.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Yeah, and on that too.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Last year there were literally city managers said, hey, listen,
there's going to be maybe it was some bridges and
roads said that listen, there's some streets that aren't going
to get plowed. It's just a matter of fact. Is
that has that changed since this time last year?
Speaker 1 (02:40):
That's my understanding.
Speaker 4 (02:41):
Yes, you know, we found last year after the snow
emergency that there were six hundred streets we didn't even
know that we hadn't touched.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
And so we have literally redrawn the maps.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
We've put in place a new system that makes so
much sense. You know, it's a GPS based system where
you can actually real time track streets are being plowed,
what streets have not been touched.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
And then we're making sure we're hitting all of them.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
And even though the Cloud Tracker is kind of hit
or miss right now, that's mostly because they have too
money people coming to watch it. It's working. It seems
to be working really well.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Yeah, on that, we're getting some calls. We had difficulty
trying to log on and see in real time what
roads have been plowed, and we had calls many a
lot of people expressing frustration with that, and it's a
bandwidth issue. I understand that, but is heavily this was
that with all the problems last years, heavily this this
solution was advertised. Shouldn't shouldn't that have been an issue
that was foreseen that a lot of people are getting
(03:34):
get on to see what the roads look like.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
I would say that the issue that we did not
foresee was how successful our marketing campaign would be at
getting people to.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Trust this and use it.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
Because we definitely expected a lot of usage, we did
not expect nearly as much as we're getting today. And
I think that's I think that's fantastic, and we're going
to get it fixed for the next time.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
That's why you stress test these experiences.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
And we're found out that it's you know, it is
working hit or miss. I've had the same problems that
you're talking about there, but the miss is the problem,
and so we're going to we're going to increase that bandwidth.
We're going to make it better for the next time.
Unfortunately that is the problem. But frankly, I'd rather take
a problem. We have too many people watching a successful
system than last year, where it was literally making up
data and making us think that it hit streets that
it had we hadn't come close to touching.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Yeah, but I guess you'll push it back if if
you stress test something, it shows you it's working. Apparently
the stress test wasn't stressful enough.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
Well, I mean, yesterday I was watching it. It was
really it was actually really fun to watch. As we
were showing what streets were getting pre treated. We were
getting a lot of comments from people that they've never
seen so many so many poles out there pre treating roads.
But then today the snow hits a lot more people
watched it. So what we expected to stress us to
have in terms of how many people would watch it,
(04:51):
we've we've passed. Then today finds out that a lot
more people are watching it again. That's a good problem
to have. Yes, we got to do.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Better at it. We're going to do better at it.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
But the problem is too many people ultimately are watching it,
and that we didn't anticipate.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
And I think we will fix that. And that's an easy.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
Problem to fix, as opposed to again last year, where
we literally just didn't pole.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Six hundred streets. That's a big problem. This is a
little Okay, let's fix that internal it problem.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Yeah, I'm not going to be labor the snow tracker
app or the website anyway being down from time to
time and getting you know, slow to load and things
because so many people are watching it. I don't think
that's a pot It's a step in the right direction
of the sense that you know, last year it was
six hundred roads if you're simply were left untreated and
not enough equipment, not enough manpower, not enough everything, and
the communication was terrible, the communication as much. You know,
(05:39):
if we get it right for the next no Store,
I'm fine. If we don't, there's probably more problems there
than not. But the fact of the matter is the
roads are getting treated and plowed. That's the big thing.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
Absolutely, And to your point about communication. I mean here,
in forty five minutes, the director of DPS is going
to be coming to city Council to talk about, you know,
all the work we've done the last year anyway, So
we're actually we're getting what. We're not waiting a month
to have a conversation about what the reaction is. We're
actually going to get real time. Here's what happened, here's
how it's put out, Here's where we need to do better.
(06:11):
This is the first time that I think we've had
a pretty successful reaction to the.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Snow emergency in many, many years.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
And so yeah, there's a little some little things that
are fonts in the cracks, but on the whole, it's
looking good.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
And I think the fact that we're open to the
feedback and criticism is really critical as well, because for.
Speaker 4 (06:28):
Too long, you know, the answer was just well, when
you're not every sheet can get plotted, and that's just
not an acceptable answer.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
And this year we're not accepting that as an answer.
And I'm happy about that as well.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
You should be.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
I mean that this was the feather in your cap
to get this done. There is going to be some
rough patches as you roll this thing out. I think
most people understand it and appreciate it, but it's moving
in the right direction. And the last year, council Member
Seth Walsh, what was happening behind the scenes relative to
personnel changes, disciplinary actions, the failures addressed last year? What
(06:59):
what you to the last three hundred plus days.
Speaker 4 (07:04):
Well, since the snow emergency, I mean you saw some
of the reporting that came out right afterwards, you know,
immediately we were trying to figure out what was happening,
Why did we have such a terrible reaction to the
snow emergency?
Speaker 1 (07:16):
And lifted up the hood and we I mean we
found a multitude of problems, and so they moved Assistant city.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
Manager Kathy Bailey over DPS and she really dug in
on figuring out what happened, what support needed to be
better put in place, what systems need to be fixed.
They found over forty four different areas and let me
stress areas not like issues.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
So each area had its own issues that needed.
Speaker 4 (07:39):
To get fixed within it that they spent the last
three hundred plus days fixing.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
The DPS director at the time retired.
Speaker 4 (07:46):
We brought in Mark Riley, who has been fantastic, I
mean he was texting me this morning, giving me real
time updates of what was going on on the streets,
really making sure that we had this figured out. You know,
they found out within the first couple of days of
the emerge to see that we didn't touch six hundred streets,
and they've spent the last year really going through that
and redesigning all these snow routes. They've brought in all
(08:06):
this new technology, but also they haven't.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
We haven't solved all four to four.
Speaker 4 (08:10):
Of these issues yet because those are some massive issues
that we're solving. So we've solved the immediate problems and
then like today, we find you know, we got sixty
percent of the way there on the snowplow tracker. We
didn't expect as many people to be watching it as possible,
so we got to do better and we're going to
fix that for the next time. And there's other issues
we're going to continue to work on. But the real
big stuff is, you know, we have a plan to
actually pile the streets. And again, you're from Buffalo, off
(08:32):
from Michigan. Most of this comes down and you pre
treat it and then you plow it. And we literally
we're sending our crews out to Denver saying, how do
you take care of your streets?
Speaker 1 (08:41):
You guys want to handle this, and then we're taking
their businesses. We don't need to reinvent the wheel, and
I think you see that today.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Yeah, yeah, you look at the areas that get a
lot of snow and go, Okay, we don't need to
replicate that, but we need to learn best practices to
handle things here in Cincinnati. Seth makes a lot of
It makes a lot of sense. Did you add more
plod drivers this year?
Speaker 4 (09:01):
Yeah? So we actually, you know, it sounds crazy, but
we actually created a system where everybody is now that
would drive a plow is actually trained to drive a
plow instead of last time where we were literally putting
people behind the wheel for the first time ever. I've
actually just seen two snowplows in the last like thirty seconds,
which is a great sign here.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
So you know, last time part of the problem.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
If you if you can imagine, we were literally putting
people behind the wheel for the first time, giving them
a binder with map quest like directions to say, hey,
here's where you got to drive. They were driving in
the middle of a blizzard at night, with like flashlights
in their mouths to figure out where they had to go.
I mean, that's just chaotic and that's a mess, and
that's the reason we saw the disaster we saw. Now
(09:42):
these everybody who's driving a snowplow today that you see
out there has actually gone through simulations. They've been trained
on how to drive. We've brought people in who had
the appropriate trainings. We've been sentivized people to.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Get trained on how to do it. And they're out
there and they're doing a great job.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
And I think that day is going to continue to
show over the months and years ahead, have some really
positive returns for the city.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Yeah, and it's investing in that critical infrastructure. You know,
you can talk about all those bells and whistles and
nice stuff, but if the roads aren't plowed and the
roads aren't full of potholes, that's another issue that was
addressed to in the last year, then you're gonna have
very unhappy residents. So it's good to hear that this
has now become a big priority with you and the
rest of council.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
Seth.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
I think a tip of the hat. If the roads
are is good and you're you're driving around right now, well,
somebody's driving you around, so I'm gonna make it like
you're on the phone. By the way, I would if
I were that person, I'd be demanding you buy them
breakfast if you haven't already.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
And also the.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Other thing too is breakfast.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
It is the most important meal of the day. Also,
that the twelve hour ships are new, is that correct?
Say that again, the twelve hour ships? Yeah, I think
was it twenty four hour coverage? And you know there
was a huge burnout issue because I remember, you know,
news would be talking to people who are driving a
truck for twenty four straight hours being snowblind. And now
(10:57):
you've kind of even changed the way that the ships
are scheduled, right, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
I mean, so we got we put them on twelve
hour shifts. There's a select crew that's on twelve hour
shifts when the weather starts to change. But in emergencies
like this, we put people on the twelve hour shifts.
And you know, emergency I think is a very loose
word for what we're dealing with today.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
But yeah, they're on twelve hour shifts.
Speaker 4 (11:17):
They're hard work, and they were out all night again
yesterday they were pre treating watching that on the snowploud
tracker cool, and I think that's really important that you
can see your roads got appreciated and then today you
can see hopefully you know, as the day progressage of
they'll see your roads goot plowed and them they're they're
hard workers.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
And none of this problem has ever been the drivers.
The problem has been the system we set up has
failed them.
Speaker 4 (11:40):
And I think for the first time they're they're set
up for success and we're seeing that.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
We know Seth Walsh that the tracker only activates during
full winter response operations. What you call that like for
example the snow just remindfully, what's the threshold for that?
Speaker 3 (11:52):
Who makes the call?
Speaker 2 (11:53):
And we didn't have one during the dusting is I
think we had a conversation about that as well. We'll
change eventually to where any snow event where the roads
are treated will least snow where they're doing their job.
Speaker 4 (12:07):
Oh well, I don't want to talk too far out
of school on this one, but I think that that
was a little bit of some bureaucratic speak when we
gave that answer.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
I think this is again part of how we were
learning and growing.
Speaker 4 (12:18):
So last time when we had the dusting the reason
that the snowplow tractor wasn't working is there weren't snowplows
out there. And shortly before you and I had our
last call about this, one of the things I challenged
them on was, hey, we're pre treating streets like show people.
We're pre treating streets so you don't have to have
a snowplow out there. And you see this time again,
you can track the pre treating in your streets on there.
They reacted quickly, they made the adaptions.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
They move forward.
Speaker 4 (12:39):
So I think the appropriate answer how you track snowplows
is if there's a snowplow snowpower out there, you should
be able to track it. And if that is pre
treating your street, if that is power your street, we
want to.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Be able to track the snowpower.
Speaker 4 (12:51):
If you can't track it outside of the situation like
today where there's too many people watching it, you can't
track it, it's because there's no snowplow out there. And
then you can ask us why is it not snowplowt there.
We'll probably say it's because it's a sunny day and
there's not no reason for one.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
That's the hope at least.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
Yeah, well right exactly.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
I mean, if there's a threat, as we know, you
know Cincinnati's, we freak out the minute there's even the
forecast of snow. We start driving with our hazards on.
We pump our brakes. Some people drive sixty miles over
the speed limits and people thirty miles under the speed limit.
It's chaos out there before the first flake even flies.
I think having that system in place, when that's part
of it's like, hey, l roads are treated. There's a
little bit of comfort there knowing that you guys are on.
(13:28):
I think it's a good ad for the competence of
the city.
Speaker 4 (13:32):
I agree, and I think it's going to be critical
as schools have to make decisions about whether they're gonn
to be open or closed.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
You know, they have to build trust the city.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
Is going to be able to do their job and
get the streets plowed, and the part of city.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Government is rebuilding that trust.
Speaker 4 (13:47):
What happened last year was big in the sense of
is ten inches, but it's been an issue that's been
building a building building for years and so hopefully this
allows not only have streets clear, but to be able
to get schools open appropriately. Build trust that we were
ready for, and it just kind of ripples out from
there so that you know, jobs.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Aren't interrupted and people can continue their lives even though
snow's coming down.
Speaker 4 (14:07):
They get enjoy the beauty of watching the snow as
opposed to worry about driving in it.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
The other element of this too, you kind of touched
down a little bit, is the prioritization of streets. Obviously,
the arteries, the ones that get you to the hospitals
for example, campuses, things like that, those have to be
cleared for emergency runs and the like. Side streets get deprioritized.
But what is a reasonable wait for people listening this
morning seth wallsh relative to their street being cloud.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (14:31):
I think the biggest way I'd say it is, you know,
right off the bat, we've got to clear the arteries,
and to your point, you know, cancer not cancer hospitals
are really important because people need to be able to
get to and fro there from there.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
From there, we.
Speaker 4 (14:43):
Kind of spread out to you know, the streets that
most people are traveling on. You probably know what they
are because you're probably driving on them. And then once
the snow really kind of stops, it allows us to
start tackling and triage in the side streets, but immediately
when the snow's coming down, we're trying to get those
the main arteries, the main emergency roads, the main roads
people are going to be driving on as clear as possible.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
We just keep hitting them and then I'm gonna show's over.
Speaker 4 (15:07):
We're gonna go out there, We're gonna hit the side
streets and get those clear because that's a lot easier
to just hit it once or twice and then it's
completely solved.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Yeah, And I love the you know, the when the
apps up and fully working should be for the next
cycle here, then you're gonna be there's gonna be accountability.
You can see that where the roads are, when they've
been treated, when they've been plowed, where they've been salted
and plowed. There's a whole bunch of metrics on the page.
And that's a step in the right direction for sure.
I know, a little glitchy this morning with that website
not working at times, a little slow to load, but
(15:36):
you're confident you're going to get this taken care of
for the next round.
Speaker 4 (15:40):
I'm I'm very confident and I'm I'm optimistic that going
forward it will not be a thing in Cincinnati where
you say my street never gets plowed. If your street
doesn't get plowed, it should be for other reasons like
it's a private street, not because it's subsidious and Snati
street and we just don't plow it. And I think
that'd be a huge change that hopefully you don't even
realize happened.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
He says, well, well, she's in the thick of it
right now, checking out the roads, make sure the plow
crews are doing what they're doing, making sure of things
working right. It sounds certainly well, not perfect, light years
away from where we were well almost a year ago
in January when that ten inch storm and literally six
hundred streets not plowed. That is a unmitigated disaster. Far
sight better today for sure, Buddy. Appreciate you checking in
(16:19):
this morning, Seth as always. Thanks again, Thanks scott Council
member Seth Wilson in the Scotsland Show on seven hundred
w Dow.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
There you go.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Hopefully your commutes okay, And looks like a lot of
the roads got cleared in the last couple hours anyway
for those straggling the work.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
Maybe a little bit late this morning. That's good. That's good.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
So yeah, not perfect by any stretch of the imagination,
but far sight better than it was. At least the
needle is moving in the right direction, slowly with news.
We'll get a full traffic and weather update seconds away
here on seven hundred WLW
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