Greenwood snowplow tracker helps drivers, business owners
GREENWOOD, Ind. (WISH) – The roads are always one of the biggest concerns when it comes to snow.
The city of Greenwood is making it possible to track the progress of snowplow drivers with an online tracking map.
From your phone, tablet or computer, you pull up the map. It shows in real time, the current conditions of the roads. In Greenwood, main roads are prioritized, then side streets if there is time. The goal for the city is to have the roads plowed within 24 hours of the snowfall.
But, the online snowplow tracker does more than just help drivers.
After only one year, business is steady at Brickhouse Coffee Co. on Main Street. Their recipe for success is tasty, warm drinks.
“A Brickhouse signature would be 10 ounces, two shots, one shot of vanilla and your choice of milk,” owner Jared Stayton said.
But, sometimes a signature drink isn’t enough to keep customers coming. Trouble for business brews when winter storms arrive. This past Saturday, Stayton closed early because of the snow. With more winter weather on the way, Stayton is already thinking about what to do.
“If it’s going to be a similar pattern or worse than last Saturday, we’re weighing out the options of even opening,” Stayton said.
That decision just got easier now that motorists can track online what roads in Greenwood that snowplow drivers have cleared, which ones are actively being plowed, and which ones have not yet been touched.
Stayton said, “I would use it because now I know how to adjust my schedule and my employees. Can we open tomorrow? Is the passage clear? Are the roads clear?”
Greenwood GIS technician Tom Maggard said the mapping system has been in place for snowplow drivers for about two years. It was made available to the public last year; however, with little snowfall in that period, people did not take advantage of it.
“Somebody can go to a website and look and say look, ‘I see they’re moving through this subdivision. I live next to that and let me see if they hit mine next,’” Maggard said.
With last Saturday’s snow and more in the forecast for this weekend, Maggard is hoping to get the word out about the map so that drivers can take advantage of it.
“That’s the goal: to be able to have something to reference and look at and realize, ‘Oh, the main roads have been actively plowed,’” Maggard said.
It’s a tool that puts one less thing on coffee shop owner’s plate, so he can go back to filling cups.
“For anything to be taken off my plate that I would not have to worry about, is huge for small business,” Stayton said.