With winter creeping closer, the Town of Herndon is looking ahead to snow removal this season and, hopefully, some improvements for trail users in future years.
Tammy Chastain, acting director of public works, walked the Town Council through what’s planned for dealing with snow this season.
Chastain said the normal expectation is three to eight inches, handled by the town’s 16 total crew members, with some administrative changes if the town faces more than eight inches.
This past year, Chastain said Herndon struggled with unusually high levels of ice.
“This past year we had a lot of cold weather and when it melted, it created ice, which was hard to remove,” Chastain said. “That does take longer and more people are involved.”
One notable part of the discussion was Vice Mayor Clark Hendrick raising the possibility of reaching out to the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority (NOVA Parks) about doing more to clear the trail in Herndon.
According to Hendrick:
I recall having this conversation at some point: I know that Fairfax County parks controls W&OD. We all know a lot of people commute, particularly between here, Reston Town Center, and Wiehle-Reston. That is a commuter area for the bike path.
the budAt one point during a snow I was running and I ran toward Reston and as soon as I got into Reston it was clear. I don’t know if that was a private Good Samaratin that cleared the bike path for three miles, but it was cleared and ours was not, and that was frustrating.
Was it the Park Authority that loves Reston and doesn’t love us?
Chastain said if there’s less than three inches of snow, the Park Authority doesn’t do anything for snow removal for the most part, but there are some special agreements.
“They have some agreements for different areas that they cross because they too are limited in the number of people they employ,” Chastain said. “They mentioned they do have some agreements in place and they may have that in Reston.”
Hendrick also said that Herndon can, in future budgets, invest in better equipment for snow removal.
“If there’s an investment in equipment we could use to be a force multiplier on the labor we’re using to do these areas, let us know,” Hendrick said.
