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City of Cortez Hopes to Plow Snow Faster With Outside Help

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The Cortez City Council heard plans Tuesday night for improved snow removal through the use of contract help. At the council workshop, Public Works Director Phil Johnson proposed increasing next year’s snow-removal budget from $42,000 in 2017 to about $69,000. City Manager Shane Hale said during snowstorms, the city’s priority is clearing main arterials and school-bus routes, but that leaves many residential streets untouched. He said it’s less expensive to contract for extra help during occasional wintry spells than to pay more staff. Johnson said two years ago, the season’s final storm fortuitously dropped its foot of snow north of Cortez, or the city would have been “digging out for a week.”

Gail Binkly is a career journalist who has worked for the Colorado Springs Gazette and Cortez Journal, and was the editor of the Four Corners Free Press, based in Cortez.
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