Staff photo / Ed Runyan... Kay Miller, left, gets into her car Tuesday to back it out of the driveway at The Village at Arlington apartments on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Youngstown. Miller’s car got stuck in the snow on the way in, but Eric Brown, an employee of the apartment complex, helped free it from the snow. Brown said he thinks Miller got stuck because snow from plows blocked the entrance.

YOUNGSTOWN — Most people living on the city’s side streets have seen a Youngstown snow plow drive past their home as frequently as they’ve seen the Yeti.

That’s not to slight Bigfoot as many have yet to see him either.

And the city’s new GPS tracking devices in its snow-plow trucks — to allow people to monitor the locations of the vehicles and when they’ve been on streets — aren’t much help if they haven’t made it to the side streets.

But at least there’s hope of seeing a city snow plow soon.

As of late Tuesday, almost 48 hours since the snow started to fall, about 25 percent of the city’s side streets were plowed, said Kevin Flinn, buildings and grounds commissioner.

“We probably have a couple of more days” of plowing the side streets, he said.

Flinn later said he hoped the city could finish plowing side streets by late today.

The city hired contractors using four snow graders to help with the side streets, and the city’s parks and recreation department is hauling snow from downtown “because it’s packing up at the intersections and crosswalks,” Flinn said.

The city’s 13 snow-plow trucks — including three that arrived last week — have been on the road since 6 p.m. Sunday, but had concentrated on the main streets until Tuesday morning, Flinn said.

Councilwoman Anita Davis, D-6th Ward, who represents most of the city’s South Side, said: “The roads in my ward are bad.”

There are cars stuck on several streets, she said, because people tried to drive on the unplowed roads and didn’t get too far so they had to abandon their vehicles.

Flinn said the street department has been “overwhelmed” with calls and emails from people wanting their streets plowed.

“People are very upset,” he said. “But we have to run our routes. If we responded to everyone’s individual requests such as for doctor appointments, we’d never get done. We’re doing it to the best of our ability. We have to operate as efficiently as possible.”

It took the street department about 12 hours of plowing to open the main roads, Flinn said. “Because of a high volume of (snow) accumulation, we have to take more passes along the side streets.”

This has been a longstanding problem with the city’s street department.

Flinn acknowledged it’s likely never going to get better.

“Until we double or triple our labor with drivers and double and triple the equipment, it is what it is,” he said.

Youngstown has close to 1,000 streets and 1,100 lane miles so the 13 snow-plow trucks and drivers are doing a lot of work, Flinn said.

“These guys are dragging here,” he said of the plow drivers. “We may be tired, but this is what we’re here to do.”

dskolnick@vindy.com