There's More Snow In Brookhaven, But Not As Many Plows, And There's A Reason, Highways Supe Says

FARMINGVILLE, NY — This winter season has seen an unprecedented amount of snow dumped on Long Island unlike the milder winters of past years.

On Sunday, a blizzard brought snow accumulations of more than 20 inches and wind gusts of up to 70 miles per hour across the area.

But in Brookhaven Town, there haven't been as many plows, it seems, prompting some recent complaints about roads being either still covered in snow after a storm, leaving residents stranded inside their homes — and asking what the reason behind the issue is.

Brookhaven Town Highways Superintendent Dan Losquadro shared his thoughts in a recent interview with Patch, calling it "a larger societal issue," involving the number of people engaged in the type of work, and he thinks it "cuts across every segment of society."

"There's not enough skilled workers across every segment of society right now," he said, explaining that, coupled with the fact that equipment and insurance costs are much higher than they used to be.

"I think it's kind of a perfect storm," he said, explaining that his colleagues in the other towns on Long Island "are down by more than half from where they were a decade ago."

"There just aren't enough people doing the work," he said, adding, that there have been a lot of mild winters. "You had a number of people who used to do this type of work who then, you know, they used to work for people. They were the ones working for the construction company or the landscape company, and they were the ones doing the plowing."

"Now, these individuals are older — they're the ones who own these companies," he said. "They tell me that they have a hard enough time getting the guys who work for them to come into work every day, let alone work all night plowing snow."

"This is a larger issue, and that's something that my colleagues and I speak about all the time," he added.

To make the job more appealing to workers, Losquadro has raised his rates significantly — over 20 percent in the past three to four years, to account for increases in insurance and equipment costs.

"I just raised them another 10 percent on Jan. 1," he said. "And that's just to keep pace with what other municipalities are paying. I'm not even going above and beyond anyone else."

"We're just all kind of keeping in line with each other," he said. "This is a significant issue, and one for which none of us have an answer."

A factor weighing in is vehicles have become very expensive.

"As a result, these guys plowing, they're not banging around in a 1988 F250 anymore," he said, adding, "The trucks that these contractors are buying for construction work or for landscaping work, these are $90 to $100,000-plus vehicles, and some of them are reluctant to put that type of equipment on the road plowing, because the equipment takes a beating."

"It's going to shorten its life expectancy," he said. "You're going to have damage, and it's just something a lot of people aren't willing to do with the price of equipment nowadays."

"So it is a multi-faceted problem, one for which I wish I had the silver bullet, the magic wand I could wave and solve it," he added. "But as I said, every one of my colleagues and I speak about this, and everyone is down by more than half with the number of contractors they hire compared to where we were 10 or 12 years ago."

Internally, Losquadro has increased the town's fleet by continuing to outfit more pieces of equipment and identify excess pieces of equipment in other departments like parks, waste management, and from general services, "putting them out on the road during snowstorms," he said. "We have over 250 pieces of town-owned equipment during a snowstorm."

In response to a recent call for contractors, over 170 pieces of higher equipment signed up, which is higher than the town has had in recent years, Losquadro explained.

"Anytime you get a big storm, you usually get an influx of people because they know it's going to be enough money and enough time to make it worth their while," he said. "These situations ebb and flow."

During the last storm in January, Losquadro saw about 20 more people sign on.

"I tell people, if you want to work, if you have a plow, you have a piece of equipment, you want to sign up, come to 1140 Old Town Rd," he said. "We are always looking for more equipment. I can pretty much guarantee you, in the next snowstorm, you will be working."

For Losquadro, the bottom line is there are fewer contractors plowing snow that are available to the municipalities for hire than there have been in the past.

"If I was a young person right now, and I owned a truck, I would absolutely go out and buy a plow," he said."Right now, we are starting at $120 — that is almost $120 an hour for a basic pickup, a F150-type truck. If you have an F250 or 2500 you're making even more than that. You are close to $130 an hour."

"This is real money," he said. "This isn't, oh, you're making $25 an hour somewhere."

Losquadro has about 170 contractors, but easily could have double the number plow the town's roads.

"I could put 400 pieces of hired equipment on the road," he said. "It's just going to make the process go that much faster."

"It's just a question of the number of hours it's going to take after a storm stops to get back through the entire town, push everything back clean cul-de-sacs," he said, explaining larger storms will take longer to clean up. "I think you and I had spoken about that when you're pushing this much snow, every cul de sac takes three-four times longer than it does pushing a couple of inches of snow."

"So I'm always looking for more contractors, because I know the more I have, the faster the recovery will be," he added.

But every storm is different.

Some storms require more sanders than plows, others require dump trucks, depending on the consistency of the snow.

Losquadro said there are also priorities on how roads are managed, such as primary roads and arterial roads, which take priority, with the town having heavier trucks dedicated to those roads, and usually kept clear of snow.

On an ongoing basis, during the storm, the plows will tackle secondary and tertiary roads, which are the last roads to get hit.

"I know it's a wonderful quality of life to live on a dead-end or a cul-de-sac, but on a road that only has four or six houses on it, sometimes less, those roads are obviously the lowest priority because they service the smallest number of residents," he said. "Not to say that we don't plow them during a storm, but our priority during the storm is just to keep roads passable that fire, police, or first responders can get down that road, and that may only be one pass up and down, during the storm."

After the snow stops, the plows need at least six to eight hours after a storm before residents see another pass through every road in the town.

"I think that's actually very good response time," Losquadro said. "We have the town broken down into what we call our snow maps. Those are areas that each crew or equipment is responsible for, and that allows us to know if a piece of equipment goes down, if it breaks down, or has an accident, which, again, if something happens that zone is not going to be covered."

"We need to reallocate equipment from somewhere else," he said. "It allows us to keep track of what areas have been covered and what might need more assistance. So that's just the way snow operations work."

"That always pops up in every storm," he added.

Losquadro disagreed with speculation that some contractors do not want to be tracked by GPS, which is a requirement. It was introduced years ago after investigators found corruption involving workers submitting timesheets for times they were off-duty.

If a contractor isn't willing to place a GPS on their truck, Losquadro doesn't want them working for him, plain and simple, and he questioned why someone wouldn't want the town to be able to keep track of how roads are being cleared because the technology makes the process efficient.

"If someone wants to go and plow private driveways and parking lots, they're welcome to do that on their own time," he said. "They're not welcome to do that while being paid by a municipality."

"So I know some people like to say that there's a cause and effect there, but if that's the case, then why is every highway superintendent on Long Island having the same problem getting contractors?" he added.