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Indianapolis council proposes updated guidelines for snow removal

Last Updated 2 weeks by Amnon J. Jobi | Amnon Front Page

Indianapolis council proposed changes to snow removal policy

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The Indianapolis City-County Council on Monday night introduced a proposal updating snow removal guidelines in the city.

The proposal digest reads “amends Chapter 621 Article III of the Revised Code of the Consolidated City and County to require snow removal services on local city streets.”

Proposal 69 was referred to the Public Works Committee, which will meet at 5:30 p.m. Feb. 13 in the City-County Building.

The proposal has not been finalized and has not yet been shared publicly. The council agenda says Councilor Jared Evans introduced the ordinance.

During a heated Jan. 16 Public Works Committee meeting, he vowed to create the ordinance.

“We’ve put a threshold. We’re saying at four inches of snow or more we want our residential streets included in the process,” Evans said. “We’ve also given the administration 60 days to come back to us with a policy that includes that threshold.”

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His vow to create change came after receiving negative feedback from his constituents.

“I heard from so many people and so many councilors did. I think if you were in that committee (meeting in January) and you saw how angry we were because people were coming to us,” Evans said. “It was everything from, ‘Hey, I can’t even get down my street to go pick up my pharmacy medication’ to ‘My kids can’t even get to school.’”

Indianapolis Public Works released a statement after the proposal was introduced.

“Indy DPW looks forward to continuing to work with the Mayor’s Office and the City-County Council to review our current snow removal plan and evolve it in ways to better meet the needs of all of our residents.”

During the January meeting Sam Beres, the interim Public Works director, said the city did away with its “6-inch” policy in 2020. It stated that plows would go onto secondary roads, connector roads and neighborhood roads only after the city saw 6 inches of snow.

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Now, the city operates on the “Connector Policy,” which uses a “holistic assessment of roadways” before calling out snowplows. Also, the current policy includes connector roads in the plow routes, something the former 6-inch policy did not include in the initial callout.

The “Connector Policy” plows nearly 7,000 lane miles across the city. The policy excludes around 1,400 lane miles of residential streets from the plow plans.

Those details and others were outlined in a presentation from Public Works.

Democrat Councilor Andy Nielsen passionately questioned the Public Works leaders during the Jan. 16 meeting, eventually yelling at them and asking what they would do with a budget of $100 million.

“You say it’s not a budgetary issue!” Nielsen yelled. “So if I gave you $100 million dollars!”

His line of questioning trailed off before he resumed asking what the city would do with more funding for snow removal.

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While at the Jan. 16 meeting, Beres said he thinks the recent snow response was successful.

The disappointment was bipartisan.

Republican Councilor Joshua Bain was upset with the city’s policy not to plow many residential streets. “It’s the fact that we admit defeat from the beginning. We have all these residential streets in Indianapolis that we guarantee will never see a snowplow, and all of our surrounding communities that we compete with as a city are doing things that we don’t do.”

Democrat Councilor Jesse Brown also shared disappointment at the meeting. “Anger. Embarrassment at our city. Frustration. It’s palpable in all my conversations with constituents over the last couple of weeks. People just cannot understand how badly this was bungled, and then for me to sit there tonight and listen to the administration pretend like this was a successful response?”

The Indianapolis City-County Council meets Feb. 3, 2025, in the City-County Building. (WISH Photo/Danielle Zulkosky)