Orchard Park, N.Y. (WBEN) - Erie County announced on Friday a few additions to their winter weather fleet.
The Erie County Parks Department has acquired two new PistenBully 100 snow machines, similar to what are seen at ski resorts for grooming, equipped with eight-passenger cabins that are now a part of the county’s winter-weather response fleet.
"They can be used during extreme winter conditions, but then they also have a daily use," said Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz. "They're groomers for our park's hills, such as the snow hill here at Chestnut Ridge, as well as the other places that we have like Como and Emery, where we have the ski hill. We have these track vehicles that we use during the winter all along, and then they can be used also as they have been in winter extreme situations."
In addition, Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Homeland Security Emergency Services for Erie County, Greg Butcher, highlights that these vehicles come with Erie County staff who have been thoroughly trained to operate these vehicles.
"We've taken the opportunity post-Blizzard to do some extensive training. We have actually not only trained staff, but we have trained trainers to continue to expand our cadre of individuals who are capable of manning this equipment.
In addition to that, we took an opportunity to create a task force. This task force is made up of members of the parks department that will be able to operate some of this equipment, as well as our sheriff special operations crew, which are trained in cold weather rescue. In addition to that, members of the Erie County EMS division are going to be part of this to help render aid to individuals who may need that."
The County also added five new frontline plow trucks, as they do every year, with a cost of $250,000 a piece. They also added ten 'high lifts', bringing the county's total to 24.
"Within every district, the high lifts always become the first line of defense once we get to a point where we get these three to four inches of snow accumulations, and the roads are shut down. So the high lifts go in, and then we come back through with the plow trucks," said Bill Geary, Erie County's Department of Public Works Commissioner.
The two new PistenBully vehicles come at a cost of $338,000 each and were paid for out of the surplus funds accrued by Erie County.