January 10, 2025

• Friday Thoughts
• Coffee With Your Councilman - January 30
• Café LOUIE - Postponed
• Many Recycling Locations Currently Closed
• HeARTS: Healing Through The Arts

Friday Thoughts

Happy Friday! Hopefully, you are staying safe and warm during this blast of winter. If you have kids who have been home from school all week, I hope they aren’t driving you too crazy!

I want to focus my comments this week on the winter weather and the city's response as I know this has had an enormous impact on so many of you. For a little background - the city maintains 110 snow routes that cover approximately 2,700 two-lane miles of roadway. This work is done by the Metro Snow Team which consists of about 200 people and 160 pieces of equipment. The snow routes prioritize major roadways that lead to critical infrastructure (like hospitals) and arterial roads. TARC and JCPS bus routes are also prioritized. Keep in mind these routes often require multiple treatments. When our plow operators have sufficiently cleared these roads, they turn their focus to JCPS routes not on the normal plan.

Allow me to pause here and say our Metro Snow Team has been working around the clock this past week. I very much appreciate the work they have done keeping so many of our roads open and our city functioning.

When we have an event like this, I will often start to hear from residents wondering when their street will be plowed. The simple answer is neighborhood streets are not plowed as a general rule - neither in the suburbs nor in the urban center. The reason for this, as illustrated above, is the amount of resources required would be overwhelming. How would the city prioritize one neighborhood over another? In what order would they be plowed?  What would you do with all the excess equipment and personnel the rest of the time (since we have a snow event like this only once every few years). In other words, while it would be great to have this week, it would be an incredibly inefficient use of tax dollars the other 99% of the time. We are fortunate that we don’t have weather like this often and when we do, it usually changes quickly enough that the snow doesn’t stick around very long. 

I know some people have inferred from the mayor's recent comments that clearing neighborhood streets is the responsibility of an HOA or some similar group of neighbors. I’ve spoken with the mayor about this and he agreed his choice of words was not optimal. To be clear - it is not the responsibility but rather the option of a neighborhood to take on that job. Some collect fees to provide this service. Others do not, for reasons similar to why we don’t buy more snow plows - additional money is required for an expense that rarely materializes. I know it’s frustrating - particularly if you haven’t felt safe leaving your house for several days. The alternative, however, is either higher taxes or cuts in other city services for something that is rarely needed.

On a different note, last night was the Metro Council's organizational meeting for the year which included welcoming seven new council members. We now wait for standing committees to be announced, committee assignments to be made, and regular meetings to resume in a couple of weeks. As I’ve said before, my focus continues to be public safety, addressing homelessness and related issues, improving the built infrastructure of our area, and helping grow our economy. As that unfolds, I'll have more updates on what we are doing in our district.

Thank you again for your patience with the weather and all that entails. Have a safe and happy weekend. And, as always, please let me know if my office can do anything to assist you.  
 

Contact the District 17 Office

Markus Winkler
17th District Councilman
Metro Council President
502.574.1117
Contact Councilman Winkler

Kip Eatherly
Legislative Aide
502.574.3462
Contact Kip

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Important Numbers

Animal Services  473-7387
Charmoli NP  574-5787
Codes & Regulations  574-2508
EACM  426-2824
Health & Wellness  574-6520
Jefferson Co. Clerk  574-5700
KY Science Center  561-6100
LG&E  589-1444
LMPD (8th Division)  574-2258
Louisville Water  583-6610
Louisville Zoo  459-2181
Mayor's Office  574-2003
Middletown Library  245-7332
MSD  540-6000
NE Regional Library  394-0379
Parks & Recreation  574-7275
Planning & Design  574-6230
Public Works  574-5810
TARC  585-1234