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With three to six inches of snow expected to fall in the Mon-Yough area today and tomorrow, city crews will hitting the streets on seven different routes, giving priority to heavily trafficked thoroughfares and streets that serve school buildings.

That's according to Nick Shermenti, city public works director, who said last week McKeesport's salt bins were full. The street-plowing strategy has been in place for more than a decade --- and unfortunately for the perpetually cash-strapped city, so have some of the trucks, Shermenti joked.

The top priority streets include Lysle Boulevard, Walnut Street, O'Neil Boulevard, Eden Park Boulevard, Versailles Avenue and Evans Avenue.

Although Lysle and Walnut are state-maintained highways, the city is reimbursed for snow removal, Shermenti says. Similar agreements are in place for snow removal on county-owned roads, including O'Neil.

Larger dump trucks attack main arteries while smaller pickup-size trucks are sent into neighborhoods, Shermenti said. A complete circuit of the city by seven public-works employees takes "about five to six hours if we're plowing, and about four hours if we're salting," he said.

. . .

But even the best-laid plans would have trouble if the storm turns much worse, like the blizzard on Feb. 5 and 6, 2010 that unexpectedly dumped 24 inches of snow on Western Pennsylvania in about 24 hours.

For now, the National Weather Service in Moon Township says the McKeesport area is expected to receive 1 to 3 inches of snow before 8 p.m. Tuesday, with a total of 3 to 6 inches by Wednesday night.

"Conditions will deteriorate rapidly early this afternoon as the steady accumulating snow moves in, making for a difficult evening commute," the NWS reported in a weather advisory. Areas of blowing and drifting snow are possible Wednesday, the service said.

. . .

McKeesport's street department has 11 employees to maintain 104 miles of street, Shermenti said. Routes near George Washington, Centennial, Founders' Hall and other schools are plowed and salted in the early-morning hours in hopes of reducing school cancellations to mere delays, he said.

An approved list of private snowplow contractors is also maintained by the city, he said.

During the February 2010 cleanup, seven private contractors supplemented city crews, Shermenti said. According to news reports, Pittsburgh paid from $50 to $300 per hour for snowplowing, but Shermenti said McKeesport had locked all of its contractors into a rate of $45 per hour.

But the record-setting snowfalls of last winter did blow apart the city's salt budget, Shermenti said. While the city had planned to purchase 3,000 tons of salt at a cost of about $100,000, it wound up using 5,000 tons at a cost of more than $247,000, he said.

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