Costs to Madison residents continue to pile up in the wake of one of the biggest snowstorms in years. The Madison snowstorm, which came a week after parts of the east coast received 25 inches, demonstrated the unexpectedness of the Wisconsin climate. It interrupted Wisconsin's previously mild winter and has significantly disrupted vital city services such as police protocols, garbage collection and bus schedules.
'A general snowstorm costs [the city] $300,000?? This will probably be a bit more,' said George Twigg, city spokesperson for Mayor Dave Cieslewicz. The city has already been pounded with a foot of snow, and with several more inches expected today, the expenses will rise considerably.
The snow caused the city to stop garbage collection Thursday morning. 'It was suspended for the day because of the very heavy snow and wind; it made operations impossible,' Twigg said.
Though the plowing teams were out in full swing, Madison residents were forced to exercise caution on the roadways and will experience slight delays in bus travel. 'Most of our routes are 10 to 20 minutes behind,' Madison Metro spokesperson Jennifer Bacon said. She said there were no plans to stop service.
Due to the adverse conditions, the Police Department decided to assign itself to only priority calls at 9:15 a.m. Thursday. Essentially, that meant police did not respond immediately to calls for minor accidents, noise violations or disturbances.
'The weather is so difficult to maneuver around, there were a ton of crashes and we can't respond to all of them,' said Mike Hanson, Madison Police public information officer. 'Police vehicles are horrible to drive in the snow because they have rear-wheel drive. If someone is concerned they got into a minor accident or fender bender, they can call our office and we will mail them an accident report.'
'I saw some girls fall down and saw a lot of spin-outs,' UW-Madison junior Nick Kuehnel said. 'My concern is that the roads are not getting plowed quickly enough for smaller cars.'
Despite nearly a foot of snow, city services are quickly resuming.
A City of Madison Recycling release said that garbage collection will resume Friday, and that if not all garbage is collected, workers will continue to work overtime on Saturday.
