Staff photo / David Skolnick Standing in front of one of the 10 newer snowplows purchased for the Youngstown Street Department are, from left, JR Pierce, general foreman; Kevin Flinn, buildings and grounds commissioner; and Christopher Williams, a driver / laborer at the department.

YOUNGSTOWN — While there’s no snow in the forecast, the city’s street department is ready for winter, having added 10 snowplows to its fleet in the past six years.

The city has invested about $6 million into the street department — about $5 million for vehicles and equipment and $1 million for needed improvements to its building on Teamsters Drive, said Kevin Flinn, buildings and grounds commissioner.

That includes 10 new snowplows for the city’s streets, and four Ford F250 smaller trucks used for downtown and for “a faster response” when needed, Flinn said.

“The problem we had for years was equipment and the lack of proper backup equipment,” he said. “If a truck went down, a driver would be sitting there. So our No. 1 priority was to update the plow truck fleet.”

Before December 2019, the street department hadn’t purchased a new snowplow since 2007, and some dated back to 1999.

Working with old equipment that frequently broke down made the job of plowing streets very difficult, Flinn said. Using old equipment, seven trucks stopped working in November 2019 while spreading salt.

Each shift for snow removal has 13 trucks, including the 10 purchased in the past six years, Flinn said.

Flinn said he wants to order two additional plow trucks next year.

“That’s how we keep the fleet moving ahead instead of playing catch-up,” he said.

Years ago and before the new equipment, the city street department faced criticism for delays in snow removal, particularly on side streets.

“Every season we learn what we could get better at,” Flinn said. “This isn’t a mission accomplished at all. We’re continuing to work to get better. We’re thankful for the mayor’s support and city council. Without their support, we wouldn’t be able to purchase anything. We’re thankful for their support of our agenda and our plan to get better.”

Overall, the street department’s fleet includes 30 trucks that can be used for snow removal, he said.

“We run the old trucks until they’re no longer operational,” said JR Pierce, general foreman at the street department.

A number of those old trucks are then repurposed to be used to help street sweepers unload what they collect, Flinn said.

The city has a GPS system on its snowplows that allows residents to track their location on the city’s website, youngstownohio.gov, as well as an app that gives people a way to contact the street department to report potholes and high grass, Flinn said.

The department also has added several other vehicles in recent years for excavating, mowing of high grass and street sweeping, Flinn said. Some of that work had to be contracted out, but with the equipment the street department is able to do it, he said.

The street department this year mowed 6,000 vacant lots in the city four times each, Flinn said, and swept every city street twice.

“It’s helped with the morale in the department,” he said of the equipment. “You can see how our drivers, our operators are taking care of the vehicles and the equipment.”

Steven Anzevino, president of the Teamsters Local 377, which represents the street department union, agreed that morale is much better than it was a few years ago.

“We’ll have differences, but when you work together things progress better,” Anzevino said. “The lines of communication are open. Five years ago, you looked around the department, and it was rundown equipment and now almost everything is new.”