City of Topeka deviated from snow removal plan to aid neighborhoods

Topeka’s city government went against its established snow and ice removal plan when it plowed residential streets last week, city manager Brent Trout said Tuesday. He suggested the city may take similar steps to help neighborhoods in the future.

Last week’s decision “was a big departure from what we’ve done in the past, but I think it’s appropriate,” Trout said during the monthly news conference he and Mayor Michelle De La Isla hold at City Hall.

The move came at a time when the city has been examining its policies regarding snow and ice removal from streets. Trout said that while city officials remain “in the middle of that discussion,” he has made some temporary changes. Trout said the decision deviated from the city’s snow and ice removal plan, which calls for plowing of residential streets to begin only after Topeka has received 6 inches of snow accumulation.

“The street conditions following the most recent back-to-back snow and ice events required a deviation from the approved snow and ice treatment plan,” Trout said in a email. “The rapid freeze and thaw cycles didn’t allow time for side streets to clear but instead made them very slick. The threat of a prolonged below-freezing temperatures and possibility of additional snow accumulations led to the decision to remove as much of the snow and ice as quickly as possible during the warmer day last Friday on all residential streets.”