City Speaks Out on Residents' Concerns about Snow Removal

This week’s seemingly relentless dumping of winter weather on the area has some Oak Forest residents wondering: Where have all the snow plows gone?

Oak Forest Patch Facebook fans were quite vocal about their concerns.

Where are the plows in Oak Forest?, wrote one fan. The roads on the east side of Central are horrible especially by Ridge School. I would think they would be out there cleaning them up before more snow comes today, especially by the schools.

What’s with the plowing?, another wrote at 5:30 p.m. Sunday. My block ( Charles Lane) still has not been plowed. Helped a few cars that were stuck!

The answer? Public Works is doing the best it can.

“On Sunday, we had a very wet, heavy snow fall,” officials said in an email alert. “Once traffic got on that snow and temperatures dropped, it compressed and created an ice bond to the pavement. As we plowed and salted, the salt worked better in some locations than others, and that bond began to break up. This resulted in some streets being slushy while others developed a washboard effect—some of the ice pack released and some remained bonded to the pavement.”

All city streets were salted Tuesday, and Public Works drivers “allowed the salt to work its way through the ice layer” during the evening rush hour. Plow drivers were then sent out at midnight, for another pass at plowing and to scrape the areas where salt had broken down the ice.

And then, more snow Wednesday.

“Unfortunately, today’s snow slowed our cleanup efforts,” the City wrote.

“Please know that we are doing everything we can do right now to make the City of Oak Forest safer.”

So let’s hear it. How are your roads?