Leaders at the Mount Vernon Department of Public Works spent Thursday morning at city hall planning how to handle the city’s first snowstorm in over a year.

Additional staff is being brought in and shifts for Saturday night and Sunday morning were ironed out.

On the east side of the city, DPW crews started prepping the city’s 23 snow trucks for the storm.

Eight of the trucks are brand new and will tackle snow for the first time.

"It's a blessing to have all these new trucks," said Mount Vernon DPW Commissioner Damani Bush. "We are trying to incorporate them into our fleet to make sure all the routes are completed but still utilize the old ones too."

Mount Vernon has come a long way in its efforts to tackle snow cleanup.

In 2018, the city had a disastrous response to a November snowstorm in which DPW had just five of the cities then 10 snow plows operational.

The city is now earning back the faith of residents like Maria D'Ambrosia who said in years past her dead-end street on Melrose Avenue has been either missed or last to get plowed.

"They not coming to clean it, because a dead-end street they don't come in all the way," she said.

DPW will be utilizing its new GPS tracking system to systematically hit every street with plows.

They've also dedicated a plow for all dead-end streets.