INDIANAPOLIS — If you live on a side street or in a residential neighborhood in Indianapolis that has yet to be plowed, chances are that at this point it will not be touch by the Indianapolis Department of Public Works.
Dan Parker, director of Indy DPW, says a lack of equipment and funding means that they cannot afford to keep plowing streets this week at the rate they have been over the last 72 hours. He says to clear the snow from every mile of some 8,000 miles of city streets in Indy would require a lot more equipment.
“That’s just the sheer amount of equipment that wouldn’t be possible with the amount of equipment that we have,” Parker said.
The amount of snow that fell force all of DPW’s 107 plow and salt trucks to be called into action. That means the department has at least 107 drivers to pay to drive those trucks. Parker said with the number of hours they’ve been having to work, the department’s overtime budget for the whole year is already exhausted.
“We did call out our two contractors to start working on residential connectors that we have identified,” Parker said. “We also have folks working downtown to remove snow from parking lanes and the circle and other places downtown.”
Parker said they had to call in their private contractors because they cannot afford to pay out any more overtime right now for their regular plow drivers.
