By SHELLEY TERRY - Staff Writer - sterry@starbeacon.com
ASHTABULA — City residents, and people who travel into the city, bristled after the last big snow, having to deal with snowed-in side streets and slippery main streets.
The snowy driving conditions were due in part to City Manager Anthony Cantagallo’s cost-cutting orders under a looming $860,000 budget deficit — no overtime for public works employees.
That means first-shift and third-shift employees run snowplows and salt trucks, but from 3 to 11 p.m., Mother Nature’s flurries have no limits in Ashtabula. The city’s public works employees are not allowed to work because it would mean overtime and the city manager has said, “No overtime.”
Consequently, Ward 2 Councilman August Pugliese said at Monday night’s pre-council meeting that he would like to look into the city putting snow plows on city garbage trucks to beef up plowing next year.
Dom Iarocci, superintendent of public services, wasn’t so enthusiastic about the idea Tuesday.
“Some big cities do it but you don’t just put a plow on a garbage truck,” he said. “It costs money.”
Iarocci said he understands the residents’ frustration but his hands are tied.
In the meantime, meteorologists at the National Weather Service in Cleveland predict northeast Ohio residents will see one to three inches of new snow today with a high near 32 degrees.
