Pittsburgh council strikes down plan to ask Munhall for snowplow help

Pittsburgh City Council on Tuesday rejected a proposal to ask neighboring Munhall for help with snow plowing after members pushed back last week against the idea of outsourcing the work in exchange for street cleaning services.

Councilwoman Barb Warwick, D-Greenfield, pitched the idea of an agreement with Munhall that would see that municipality plowing roads in Pittsburgh’s Lincoln Place neighborhood. In exchange, the city would clean Munhall’s streets.

Warwick viewed the deal as a partnership that could get Lincoln Place’s roads cleared more quickly, acknowledging the city struggles to plow snow-covered streets with an aging vehicle fleet prone to breakdowns.

But council members had already rejected the plan in a preliminary vote earlier this month.

They raised concerns that such a deal would violate agreements with the city’s unionized plow drivers. They also questioned how Pittsburghers would react to city street sweepers working on Munhall’s roads, while many city neighborhoods see spotty cleaning.

Warwick said she has heard from seniors afraid to leave their homes for days amid snow storms and watched city buses sliding down streets. Paramedics have had to walk down icy roads on foot, she said.

“This snow problem is a public safety issue,” she said, adding constituents have told her they missed work or doctor’s appointments while waiting days for salt trucks or plows.

In a final vote Tuesday, only Warwick and Council President R. Daniel Lavelle, D-Hill District, supported legislation that would have authorized the city to strike a snow plowing deal with Munhall. Other council members struck down the proposal.

Though council roundly rejected the notion of having Munhall’s crews clear snow from city streets, they did support a separate measure Warwick introduced to buy new plows.

A $750,000 allocation of money from the city’s liquid fuels trust fund will buy four new plows, a “baby step” towards upgrading a fleet officials have acknowledged is old and chronically under-funded. Warwick has said she hopes the new plows could arrive in time for winter.

That measure earned unanimous approval from City Council Tuesday.