Consulting Company Helps St. Paul Streamline Snow Removal

ST. PAUL, Minn. (WCCO) – A private consultant's report released this week is helping St. Paul identify and fix problems when it comes to snow removal.

"We've been hit with some pretty difficult winters over the last few years," Richard Lallier, St. Paul Public Works Director, said. "We've been making changes since last December when we were hit with the ice storm."

Civic Consulting Minnesota released their preliminary report this week for improving winter streets performance.

"It's just other sets of eyes looking at these things," Lallier said. "It's something that we've always strived for, but having the help of Civic Consulting helps us focus and really get there."

Civic Consulting Minnesota is a nonprofit organizations and doing the work free of charge for the city.

One of the biggest areas listed for improvement is communication, both internally and externally.

That includes streamlining communication to the Mayor's office and the public.

"To make sure that we have flexibility in responding, and we have the resources available to respond to the events that occur," Lallier said.

"I want people in St. Paul to know that we're working to better their experience here," Lallier said.

That includes clearing the main roads, then residential.

The report also suggests goals like clearing all residential streets within 20 hours, monitoring public transportation delays and clearing streets heavily trafficked by pedestrians.

"Bare pavement as soon as possible," Lallier said.

But this project is only the beginning of what the city said will be a several year project.

"It's allowing us to set up a baseline and collect data through this snow season," Lallier said. "To help us determine, ok here's the problem areas and what are the appropriate responses to those problem areas."

The city plans to work with Civic Consulting for the next few years.

While there are some things the city will implement right away, right now they say their main goal is to collect as much information as possible so they can start to see exactly where they need to makes changes for future years.