Medford describes multiday storm response; public works crews worked round-the-clock

Medford public works and communications staff told the City Council on Feb. 5 that city crews worked continuous shifts to clear streets after a heavy, wet snowstorm that began Feb. 3 and produced sustained, difficult conditions.

Public Works Director John Bile said crews operated on 24-hour shifts starting Monday and that steep grades and plugged roads — where stranded motorists blocked lanes — made progress slow in places. “We had about 250 miles of streets inside the city that had 3 to 10 inches of snow on them,” Bile said, describing ‘‘very heavy and wet’’ snowfall that brought down trees and created long delays while crews rescued stranded vehicles. He said arterial and collector streets were made passable by Monday night and crews focused on residential streets as the storm allowed.

The city prioritized arterials and hospital routes, Bile said, then major collectors and finally minor residential streets and cul-de-sacs; he explained cul-de-sacs are sometimes not plowed because plow trucks cannot safely turn around without blocking driveways. Bile summarized equipment and staffing: four plow/sander trucks, two large sanding trucks, a grader, and several smaller plow-sander combinations, plus managers overseeing overnight operations. He said overtime for the response had already exceeded 200 hours and that staff will debrief with council on whether to expand the city fleet. “If I could wave a wand … I’d like to have 2 large plows for our 5-yard trucks … and 2 to 3 small plows,” Bile said, giving estimated unit costs for budget planning.

Communications and Marketing Manager Christina Wilson described the city’s outreach during the event. She said the city sent five text/email updates to 15,300 subscribers and managed 25 social posts across seven platforms, producing a combined reach of roughly 421,000. She highlighted a 51% average open rate on the city’s emailed and texted messages and credited GovDelivery as a primary subscription platform. “We used all of our communication channels throughout the last 72 hours,” Wilson said, adding that staff worked to provide timely information on road conditions and closures and to protect staff safety with delayed starts and early releases as needed.

Councilors praised the response. Councilor Nick Card said Medford “is by far the shining star” in valley-wide comparisons and thanked crews for clearing major roads. Councilor Kevin Keating and others raised budget-season questions about whether the current equipment level is sufficient; Bile said the city has enough operators to run additional plows if the council funds more equipment but that longer multiweek storm events would strain staffing.

City staff said an after-action debrief is planned and that recommendations for possible capital purchases or operational changes will come to council for budget discussion.

For residents, staff reiterated subscription options for real-time alerts via medfordoregon.gov and GovDelivery, and encouraged people to sign up for topic-specific traffic alerts and Medford updates.

The presentation was informational; no council action was taken at the meeting.

Ending: Council members asked staff to return with findings from the debrief and any recommended budget or policy changes, including estimates for additional plows and associated lifecycle costs.