Tulsa City Councilor: Let's Hope Blizzard Isn't Mayor Bartlett's Katrina

Laura Moss, News On 6

TULSA, Oklahoma – Tulsa's City Council met with the Mayor Dewey Bartlett Tuesday to talk about the city's response to last week's blizzard.

"For you to say you did a very good job at cleaning the arterials, I don't know where you looked," said Councilor Bill Christiansen. 

Council members were clearly not happy with how the blizzard was handled and think city leaders are a little too proud of how they preformed.

"Let's just hope this isn't Mayor Bartlett's Katrina," Christiansen said.

2/7/2011 Related Story: City Of Tulsa Snow Plows Target More Neighborhood Streets

"Don't come here today and paint a real nice real picture like everything went just like it was supposed to. Because it did not," Councilor Jack Henderson said.

Council members gave the mayor feedback on the city's response to the blizzard and what they think should have been done.

"The no pre-treatment of the streets that was the problem that a lot of citizens could not understand why that decision was made," Councilor Henderson said.

Public Works leaders said the salt the city uses needs moisture to stick and the streets weren't wet enough for a pre-treatment. But as council members pointed out, some neighboring cities found success in salting before the storm.

"Broken Arrow did a pre-application, Owasso did a pre-application, and what did we hear on the radio two or three days after the event? Their streets were relatively good and our streets were horrible," Councilor Christiansen said.

Tulsa Mayor Dewey Bartlett said it's not up to him to make the pre treatment call; he leaves those decisions up to the professionals. Despite it all, council members did have some nice things to say.

"The use of the fire trucks to flatten out the streets in the neighborhood, that was a great idea, but let's pull the trigger a little bit sooner," Councilor John Eagleton said.

The council also commended the Mayor on how quickly the plows hit the streets, but said those could get out faster too.

2/8/2011 Related Story: Mapping Out How Tulsa Plows The City's Streets

Overall, council members said the city's biggest failure was not being proactive.

"We had plenty of notice and then to sit and say well we just waited for it to snow and then got out there," Councilor Christiansen said. "It just bothers me."

Council members also thought the streets should have been pre-treated for the second storm moving into the area Tuesday night.

But, again, public works said unless the streets are wet, the type of salt we use won't work.

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