Though Juneau might have dodged the record-breaking snowfall in Anchorage and much of Southcentral Alaska over the past week, City and Borough of Juneau officials say upheaval in the labor force has created shortages of winter crew members and could affect the city’s ability to combat a future heavy storm.
“We feel confident that we are going to be able to keep up with snowfall this year, but we’re also faced with the reality of the difficult hiring climate right now,” said Katie Koester, director of CBJ Engineering and Public Works Department. “I’m concerned about being able to respond to a major snow event to the standard at which the Juneau public expects us to, certainly we have looked at what happened in Anchorage and we’re figuring out what we need to do to be able to respond to an event like that.”
According to Koester, Juneau’s winter maintenance crew is currently down four equipment operators out of its 25-person street and fleet crew. That is two positions down from last year’s crew which contended with heavy snowfall, which sparked an online petition about snow removal and driveway berms caused by city plowing crews.
The CBJ Assembly did take action recently to better equip the city in the event of significant snowfall, Koester said, most notably creating two part-time equipment operator positions and two full-time laborers who were added to the Public Works Streets and Fleet maintenance crew during this past budget cycle.
“The state of the world is what is,” said Carole Triem, CBJ Assembly member. “We have a lot of the same issues that Anchorage does because we’re down people too.”
Koester agreed, and said as long as those positions remain unfilled, it can leave a gap in the city’s service.
“It’s really difficult to hire equipment operators so we’re down two from last year’s levels but actually four positions down from the new normal where we want to be,” she said.
Koester said commercial driver’s license requirements have gotten more difficult recently after additional training requirements were added in February by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, an issue also impacting the city’s Capital Transit bus system, which is currently down six drivers.
[Two Capital Transit routes suspended amid driver shortage]
The borough does have a list of which streets receive priority during snow removal, sanding and deicing in the event of a major snowstorm. First priority goes to high-volume streets that provide access for emergency fire, police and medical services along with designated safe routes to schools and businesses, including some major routes and streets that require special attention such as steep hills.
The second priority goes to routes that see less traffic volume and speed, often residential streets. The third priority goes toward low-volume streets, cited as dead ends and cul-de-sacs. However, Koester said it should be noted that sometimes the first priority routes may be given multiple rounds of attention before other lesser priority routes,
“We’re always looking at forecasts and trying to stay on top of it and respond to snowfall events, but that doesn’t mean every road gets cleared immediately, it doesn’t mean there are not closures, but we really are looking at Anchorage, and learning from that,” Koester said.
• Contact reporter Clarise Larson at clarise.larson@juneauempire.com or (651)-528-1807. Follow her on Twitter at @clariselarson.
