In Case You Were Worried, We’re Ready For Next Winter

While we enjoy spring flowers, our elected officials are thinking about winter.

Borough President Eric Adams and New York City Department of Sanitation (DSNY) Commissioner Kathryn Garcia unveiled a new haulster today designed to salt, and clear snow and ice from smaller tertiary streets in Brooklyn Community District 14, which includes Flatbush, Kensington, and Midwood.

There are 52 dead-end streets in Community District 14, Board Chairman Alvin Berk noted today. Smaller streets are often the last to be plowed during snowstorms.

“Haulsters have proven themselves to be exact pieces of snow fighting equipment to tackle snow clearing on narrow and dead end streets,” said DSNY Commissioner Garcia. “Snow on these streets seems to accumulate quickly. This year’s Jonas Blizzard snowfall of 27.5 inches is now the heaviest snowfall on record according to the National Weather Service.”

Community District 14’s new haulster, a Ford F-550 Super Duty Pick Up, was funded through an allocation of $163,824 from the Borough President’s Fiscal Year 2015 capital budget. It joins DSNY’s fleet of nearly 80 other haulsters used throughout the city during snow storms.

Our area’s haulster is housed at the Brooklyn South 14 Sanitation Garage in Canarsie.

Haulsters and the larger salt spreaders are what DSNY calls its “first line of defense,” and are deployed when snow accumulation reaches two inches. Each haulster holds approximately 3.4 tons of salt and 40 gallons of calcium chloride, which enhances the melting capability of the salt, and can carry a plow about eight and a half feet wide.