Plow cutbacks 'didn't work'; city ready for snow's return

Chicago has 370,000 tons of salt "on the ground, covered and ready for the snow to hit" with a plan that employs lessons learned from last year's mistakes, a top mayoral aide said Monday.

Last winter, an outcry from aldermen and their constituents forced Mayor Daley to do an about-face on a controversial cost-cutting policy that saw City Hall use less salt, plow side streets during normal working hours to reduce overtime and skip side streets altogether after minor snowstorms.

Testifying Monday at City Council budget hearings, Streets and Sanitation Commissioner Tom Byrne said the city's third-largest department won't make that mistake again.

"We learned some lessons in trying to cut back. Obviously, that didn't work," said Byrne, who replaced Michael Picardi in July.

"We will be looking at trying to get off arterials sooner if we can to get into the side streets, especially around schools, firehouses and different places that are critical facilities. It's not a whole different plan from last year. But we have some different objectives we want to try to accomplish by doing that. And we will be doing that as the snow comes down."

Fran Spielman