One member of the Gary Common Council said he would like to see the city go back to the days when it had nine snowplows — one for each district and three to float around the city.

Councilman Dwight Williams, D-6th, called on Mayor Jerome Prince’s administration and the Gary Common Council to find a way to acquire the snowplows so the city would not find itself struggling with snow removal again.

“Never again should Gary be caught with insufficient snow removal equipment to clear the streets for our residents,” Williams said.

Williams said it has been a long time since the city has had a full complement of snow removal trucks and he is asking for that plan to return.

He said the administration is in the process of securing two more snowplow trucks.

“I understand the purchase of equipment is very expensive. I think the city, if we focused, we could get the nine trucks, or at least get to a happy point,” Williams said. Having four of the nine trucks in the city’s fleet, along with the smaller Ford F550 trucks and the contractors hired to assist in snow removal would put the city at a good place to start, he said.

“That would at least help us in the clearing situations,” Williams said. He would like to see some of the funds from redevelopment projects like the sale of the Genesis Center and the former Edison School used to pay for needed capital equipment.

Prince said Williams’ desire to build the city’s snow removal fleet is right on track.

“He should be commended for his thoughtfulness and his willingness to put forth some sort of workable or potentially workable solution to the issue of snow removal, that clearly hadn’t been done prior to that. It’s a significant capital investment plan,” Prince said.

Once the equipment needs were discovered, the administration began working on a capital purchase plan.

“To that extent, I think we are there,” Prince said. He confirmed the city is in the process of purchasing two more snowplows in addition to the emergency purchase made last week.

Prince said the city plans to finance about $660,000 to pay for the emergency single tandem snowplow purchase and the purchase of the two double tandem snowplows.

The city will go out for requests for proposals for the additional two plows, which he said are not considered emergency purchases.

Both men lauded the work done by General Services workers in getting snow cleared despite the lack of enough equipment.

Williams said people in his district also did their part during the crippling snowfall last week, clearing parking lots and even some streets.

“I think residents understand the city is doing the best we can do. I want to applaud my residents,” Williams said.

The Common Council meets at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday on the Zoom platform.

Carrie Napoleon is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.