Cheyenne Calls on Private Sector to Help With Snow Removal
Cheyenne Mayor Marian Orr says the city is calling on the private sector to help ratchet up its Snow Plan.
"We're not Syracuse, New York," Orr said last Tuesday during her annual State of the City address, adding that the city simply doesn't have the equipment and manpower to handle "snow dumps all the time."
"Sometimes we have some really mild winters," she said. "To have a fleet of massive snow removal pieces of equipment and be overstaffed for the operators for that, we tend to try to be conservative in that."
Orr has taken a beating on social media in recent months over the city's handling of snow removal, and admits the city "started off on a really rocky start" this year.
"We got hit really early with snow and then our lovely Wyoming winds added to that," she said. "I brought the team in and said, 'Okay, what are we going to do?'"
"So we've reached out to the private sector to assist us," she added. "When we do have a snow event they're essentially on call, we've got the money to take care of it."
Orr says the city will continue to plow the major arterials, and the private sector will help take care of the residential areas.