Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - The Buffalo Common Council is continuing to capitalize on what they learned as a result of the recent Buffalo blizzard.
A number of resolutions were suggested for consideration as lawmakers spent time discussing various measures aimed at improving the city's ability to respond to a massive storm.
Councilman Chris Scanlon is leading the charge on most of the resolutions, saying, "There was a slate of resolutions that I filed today. One calling for the departments of police, fire and public works to respond to the council and provide us a list of their inventory. One is asking the administration to amend the American Rescue Plan to purchase the necessary equipment to upgrade that inventory. Another one is asking the administration requesting the administration creates a position of emergency management coordinator."
Amending Snow Removal Plan
One of the first resolutions discussed was amending the Department of Public Works' Snow Removal Plan to include larger snowfall and blizzards.
"Every year the Department of Public Works files a snow plan with the Common Council and we take action on it. What that snow plan does is address your typical snowfall. In there, it talks about snowfalls of six to 10 inches. What I'm asking is that they amend that plan to increase greater and more significant snow events one to three feet blizzards like we we just dealt with," Councilman Scanlon said during the meeting, "I believe that internally, there should be, if there's not, a process that lays out how they handle those issues. What I'd like to see is that put on paper that just for the nine of us, but more importantly, for the members of the public to see how that transpires when we're dealing with a more significant snowfall, I'm sure there are thresholds where mutual aid kicks in. So we're talking assistance from the county, the state, the National Guard, as they were here for the blizzard and other outside organizations, that contribute and assist us at that point."
Requesting Equipment Inventory From Department of Public Works, Buffalo Fire & Police
Councilman Scanlon is calling for equipment inventory for Buffalo Fire, Police and the DPW so that they can replace the old outdated equipment with new, snow-ready and durable equipment.
"These departments, their equipment is antiquated, to say the least. You have equipment that is nearing 20-years-old in some of these departments. For example, a large apparatus, which is within the fire department. If we order today, we're not going to see it for two years. So you're going to have equipment that's over 20 years old by the time that it arrives here and it needs to be replaced. There's equipment within that department which has cracked frames and again, they're old. Same thing within the Department of Public Works, whether it is plows, packers, and other equipment on both the streets and sanitation sides of the department," says Scanlon.
The councilman mentions that they've had conversations for years about equipment, "We need to purchase equipment that's usable in this weather. We need four-wheel drive large vehicles that can get through the elements when they present themselves. So again, we're looking for this inventory again, as quickly as possible, no later than our next council meeting."
"This isn't something new. I think a lot of people are believing that it's in response to simply the storm, but that's not the case," noted Scanlon. "Obviously, we need to be able to respond during a storm, but we also use taxpayers and City of Buffalo to pay for these services and we have to be able to provide them and when you're talking about police, fire and Public Works, these are the most vital services we provide," said Councilman Scanlon.
"The Buffalo Fire Department should have capabilities beyond just putting out fires," said Vinny Ventresca, president of the Buffalo Professional Firefighters union, who stood with a hundred Buffalo firefighters during the Common Council meeting. "A big part of our the workload that we do is EMS. So absolutely, we should have this other equipment for winter operations. We should be training on winter operations. We should have an open water rescue boat for Lake Erie, which we did. There's no water rescue in the City of Buffalo. So yeah, there's a lot that can be done. There's a lot of improvements that can be made in the fire department specifically."
American Rescue plan to fund the necessary equipment
Councilman Scanlon also proposed a resolution asking the administration to amend the American Rescue plan to start purchasing equipment for these departments.
"This equipment is broken, a lot of it is so old that if pieces or parts do break, they don't make the parts anymore and I fear that we are going to run into a situation where someone is horribly hurt or someone dies because of it. I know we have a framework for the American Rescue Plan, but I think sometimes priorities have to shift and if we are not prioritizing the health and well being of the residents of the City of Buffalo, what are we doing here? Providing that health and well being should be our primary focus and everything else should be secondary, if we can't keep people safe, and we can't keep people alive," said Councilman Scanlon.
"We did meet the Public Works Department this morning to go over ARP (American Rescue Plan) and during that meeting, we discussed the possibility of using FEMA dollars, because we have used FEMA dollars in the past for equipment. I'm hopeful that that's one pot of money that we can look at should the ARP money be restrictive, should we not have enough money in our either capital budget or operating budget, that they look at FEMA," said Councilman John Rivera.
Councilman Brian Bollman and Rivera both reiterated the importance of timeliness in the matter.
Creating an Emergency Management Coordinator Position
"It's been told to me that somebody who in the city and the fire or police, that was acting as emergency manager, it was a designee," " Councilman Mitch Nowakowski said. "It was someone that filled in those duties to respond to the emergency. But we don't want to designate to perform those duties, we want a full-time position, That that's their sole responsibility, because when you add responsibilities and duties, you really dilute what we're what we're trying to achieve, and that's emergency preparation, response and training."
Throughout the blizzard aftermath, there have been many discussions about employing emergency positions. The mayor said there will be a creation of a fleet manager, but Scanlon says you could roll the duties of a fleet manager into an emergency coordinator. "They can work with all the departments to quarterback, I think mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery, but then also apply for grants and seek other funding for the City of Buffalo that we could use for these situations, establish and administer different kinds of training for the heads of the departments who would have to respond in a situation like that elected officials and any other essential employees," Scanlon said.
