While students in Tulsa Public Schools got to enjoy a snow day Monday after the first snow storm of this winter, for most people it was a normal day since the streets conditions were mild.
Three major snow storms blanketed Tulsa last winter, but nobody will forget the blizzard at the beginning of last February that all but shut down the city for close to a week.
"We had an event. Let's review it and see what we can do better next time," Paul Strizek, City of Tulsa Public Works manager, said. "This involved police, fire, EMSA, the bus company, obviously Public Works."
Since the record-breaking snowfall last winter, Tulsa has altered its snow response plan. The city bought five new snow plows, seven new salt spreaders, and stocked up roughly 14,500 tons of salt and sand. It also updated its street-clearing routes on major streets, and added a few key residential streets with very high traffic volumes or extraordinarily steep hills.
While Monday's snow storm wasn't too severe, it was a good drill for the city to test the changes.
"It's just good to have the first event of the winter, and hopefully the last, be kind of a minor event that allows us to go out and test our program and our employees," Strizek said.
"But we'll be ready in case we get into a very large event."
But all of Tulsa should be hoping that large event doesn't come any time soon, especially if you look at the costs of a snow storm.
Crews got an early start Sunday night spreading about 1,400 tons of salt at a cost of roughly $65 per ton. If you add in the cost of overtime pay for crews, the city spent close to $100,000 Monday.
Compare that with last winter when the big blizzard cost taxpayers more than $530,000. And all three storms from last winter combined to cost close to $700,000.
This year the City of Tulsa budgeted roughly $450,000 to cover the costs of salt and sand and overtime hours for crews. After Monday's storm, that leaves just $350,000 for the rest of the year.
And while the city has more equipment and a better plan than last winter, most are hoping they won't be used again this winter.
"We'd like to wait another two or three years before we have a storm to have to implement those," Strizek said.
Click here to see maps of the City of Tulsa's street-clearing routes for snow storms.
