The City of High Point is telling residents to hold their horses before getting in the car – and that’s especially true for people who live on smaller streets.
The city isn’t equipped for a snowstorm like Winter Storm Diego that hit on Sunday, Dec. 9, so High Point is letting everyone know that, in some cases, snow plows will never get to their streets.
Jeron Hollis, the director of communications and public engagement for High Point, said that city crews clear the main roads, but generally not the residential areas.
“We typically have not done residential streets for a lot of reasons,” Hollis said.
He said that it had to do with limits on equipment, resources and manpower.
According to Hollis, some smaller towns like Jamestown do plow and salt all the streets, but he added that High Point has many more streets than Jamestown and it’s not feasible for High Point to do likewise.
Hollis said that, thankfully, High Point rarely sees anything like the snowfall that hit Sunday so the city isn’t faced with this type of challenge on a regular basis.
Hollis said that even getting those main roads done has been a real problem this time around with the traffic out there.
“We’ve had some people run into our equipment,” he said. “One rear-ended a snow plow on North Main Street.”
He said on Monday, Dec.10 that the situation is “better than it was” but everyone who didn’t need to drive should not while High Point crews address the roads.
A press release sent out by the city on Monday stated, “Although progress has been positive, it was hampered by the number of abandoned cars on the priority streets, tow trucks not running and addressing traffic concerns caused by wind rows. Staff is currently working on plowing and salting [priority] routes and clearing intersections during the day before temperatures reach the 20s tonight.”
The first streets to get attention –“Priority 1” streets – are those in the hospital area, downtown business district and those that serve as major routes like Eastchester Drive and Westchester Drive.
According to the statement, the city’s Public Services Department continues to work around the clock.
Garbage and recycling collection in High Point is scheduled to resume on Wednesday, with collection days being shifted back two days, so, for instance, collection will end on Saturday with usual Thursday customers. There will be no yard waste, loose leaf or bulk collection by the city this week.