Like the snow, the frustrations are piling up for residents of KCK over removal

On January 9, 2025By Littum

KSHB 41 reporter Rachel Henderson covers neighborhoods in Wyandotte and Leavenworth counties. Share your story idea with Rachel.

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Some Kansas City, Kansas, residents say their frustrations are piling up as high as the snow they’re seeing in their neighborhoods from this weekend’s blizzard.

Tuesday was the first day Wyandotte County Unified Government Public Works employees were able to fully plow neighborhood routes.

The priority of routes is divided into three levels: 34 hot routes, 34 secondary routes and 131 neighbor routes. Click here for a map.

Hot routes are always first and include the busiest routes, major shopping streets and hills. They also prioritize emergency facilities such as hospitals, police stations and fire stations.

Secondary routes are next, which include collector routes (subdivision streets) and streets serving schools.

Finally, there are neighborhood routes, which include local routes and residential roads.

There are 134 neighborhood routes that Public Works says they are handling in no particular order.

As of Tuesday afternoon, 70 percent of those streets had been plowed.

KCK has 2,400 lane miles of street to plow, as opposed to neighboring Kansas City, Missouri, which has 6,400.

Still, things take time, city staff say.

dewayne smith.jpeg — Dewayne Smith, Street Maintenance Manager for UG’s Department of Public Works

“Give us grace, give us time, but we’re definitely working around the clock,” said Dewayne Smith, street maintenance manager for UG’s public works department.

Smith says it generally takes 48 hours to plow and/or treat neighborhood routes if there are no outages on hot or secondary routes.

He says this is because crews intend to be as thorough as possible.

“Be safe, go slow, don’t crowd the plow and take your time,” Smith said.

The public works street maintenance team has 48 dump trucks, nine pickup trucks with plows, six loaders and a grader.

There are 57 people on this storm team, all of whom have to come in, Smith says.

The teams have been working 12-hour split shifts since Saturday afternoon. Work groups were merged on Tuesday and all will work 12-hour shifts.

A Public Works spokesman confirmed this will continue until traction is restored on the streets.

Smith also shared how staff shortages are affecting his department. Public Works’ street team has 10 vacancies.

“Vacancies have had a big impact on us,” Smith said. “We’ve done our best to rebuild our staff. We have a lot of guys who have never seen the snow on this scale. First time being in a snowmobile.”

Crews began pre-treating roads Thursday, but due to the size of this storm, they plowed continuously during the storm that started Saturday, Smith said.

Despite those efforts, residents living in the Turner neighborhood of KCK along South 54th and Klamm Street say they have yet to see any plows on their street as of Tuesday afternoon.

jessica gott.jpeg — Jessica Gott, a Turner resident who had yet to see city plows on her street Tuesday afternoon.

“I think we should be prioritized; I mean, this street is really dangerous,” said Jessica Gott, who motioned toward a hill she can see from her home, where she and her neighbors have already helped several people get up and down.

snowy hill in the neighborhood.png — Steep and snow-covered hill in the neighborhood, which neighbors have tried to help cars – unlike the white one on the right – to get up and down.

She lives across the street from Reuben Rivera, who was off work Tuesday but was given a different job title — “helpful neighbor.”

reuben rivera.jpeg — Reuben Rivera, a Turner resident, was out shoveling snow Tuesday afternoon.

“I’m kind of used to it, knowing what we have to do, what we have to do around here,” Rivera said. “Usually everyone is together.”

He says this is typically what he and the five other houses around him do when the snow comes.

His goal on Tuesday was to get through the ice on the street so he could put salt down.

“We always try to keep an area clean, keep it salted so we can at least get to work,” Rivera said.

It’s a job he’s accepted he and his neighbors will do, something Carmelo Gonzalez was surprised to find out.

carmelo gonzalez.jpeg — Carmelo Gonzalez, a visitor snowed in from Houston staying with friends in KCK, holds his son Tuesday afternoon.

“I’ve got to get back to Houston,” said Gonzalez, who was staying with friends from his native Venezuela during the holidays before getting caught up in KCK.

He currently lives in Houston, but has lived in Chicago, a city with over twenty times the people of KCK.

Still, he expected to see city trucks at some point during the three days he was stuck inside.

“I need medicine, I need food for my babies,” Gonzalez said as he held his son in his arms.

So he joined his family and friends and started shoveling, even though things didn’t add up in his mind.

Just a few doors down were some numbers that made sense.

rivera's son.png — Rivera’s son eagerly discusses his excitement about having school off.

“We just had two weeks off of school, and if we make it Friday afternoon, it’ll be like we had four weeks off,” Rivera’s son said with a smile. “This was the best day of my life.”

Public workers say to stay off the roads if you don’t need to leave the house.

For neighbors like Gott, it is not a guarantee.

“There are seven of us and we need milk,” laughed Gott.

Visit wycokck.org/snow for updates and more information on snow removal policy or Unified Government Facebook page.

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